Project: KIZUNA
by Goddra2
Summary: It's been seven years since wreckage of the International Space Station Peace fell to Earth, and now a bitter Hoshikawa Subaru must come to terms with the alien who last saw his father and the ones who want him dead.
1. Homecoming

"So, how is he?"

"He's... well, he's..."

Hoshikawa Subaru had no friends. He sat in his room all day, cross-legged on his bed, staring up beyond the clouds through the skylight above his bed, waiting for the sun to set. He hadn't smiled in seven years, since wreckage of the International Space Station _Peace_ had crashed into the Pacific Ocean in a glorious fireball, devoid of any remnant of its crew.

"He still misses his father."

"Naturally. We all do. So, _how is he_?"

"He's..."

The sun was setting, which meant that it was time for him to go. He slid off of his bed and trudged out of his room, his boots thumping on the stairs as he emerged into the foyer and shuffled past his mother and a man in a blue jacket who seemed vaguely familiar. Not that he cared; his mother was probably just having a friend over.

"Subaru!"

Wincing, he gazed at his mother almost sullenly. "Yeah?"

"Come over here and say hello to Amachi-san."

Subaru hesitated for a moment, but then decided it would be easier if he just complied with his mother's wishes.

"Hello, Amachi-san; it's good to meet you."

The boyish, round-faced man extended a hand that easily engulfed Subaru's when he shook it. "Hello, Subaru-kun. It's good to meet you, too. You don't have to be so formal, though. Mamoru-san is fine."

"As you wish."

As he had no further desire to speak to the visitor, Subaru moved to leave when his mother called for his attention one last time. "Subaru, did you finish your homework?"

Subaru didn't go to school; he hadn't gone in seven years. His mother had made an arrangement with the school so that he wouldn't have to – so long as he completed his studies and sent them his completed homework under the ever-watchful eye of "Aide", the school's representative NetNavi. This never stopped his mother from nagging him to go, however. Sometimes he wondered if he might as well just drop out. (As if his mother would let him).

"Yes, Mother," he answered in monotone. "My homework is done. I sent it in, too."

Unable to think of anything to say, Subaru's mother helplessly watched her son head toward the front door, her face creased with sadness.

"I see," muttered Mamoru. "Oy, Subaru!"

Subaru, wondering what he would have to go through this time, turned back to find Mamoru approaching him, a decidedly large grin spreading across his face. "Hey, I've got something here I think you might fancy."

Mamoru put his hand in the pocket of his blue uniform jacket and retrieved a pair of sunglasses – the strangest Subaru had ever seen, not in part due to the fact that its main component was a single, audaciously green lens. The boy raised an eyebrow at Mamoru, who was holding the glasses out to him as though they could have been some incredible treasure.

"These belonged to your dad; I happened to find them at his old workstation. I figured it would be best that they went to you."

Subaru paused, and then he took another look at the sunglasses. He examined them closely, recognizing the starlight design his father was famous for at the tips of the glasses' temples (it was a symbol which Subaru also bore in effigy – the shoulders of his favorite shirt were each marked with a white version). The article itself, upon closer inspection, revealed a series of radiating, yellow rings embedded within the lens material, although they were so dim it was hard to notice at first. Finally, Subaru noticed a short line of text inscribed along the upper bridge of the frame. "Visualizer Model Zero?"

Mamoru shrugged, still smiling widely. "No idea what it means, just that your pop always used to wear them. What, he never wore these home?"

Now that he thought about it, Subaru _did_ vaguely remember that his dad had worn bizarre glasses like these, back when he was still a child, before _Peace_. Slowly, he put them on, resting them atop his head. Now that he thought about it, they didn't seem so bad after all. Maybe the lens was some kind of special material. You never knew – his dad used to work on all sorts of unusual things.

"Thank you, Amachi-san. I'll take care of them."

While he certainly wasn't _smiling_, it seemed to Mamoru that whatever weight Subaru had been carrying had been lessened slightly. "I'm glad you like them. Take care. And don't be so formal."

Subaru nodded respectfully, and turned away, heading unimpeded through the front door.

Inside, his mother turned to Mamoru apologetically. "Well, _that's_ how he is."

Mamoru nodded thoughtfully, and then drew another object from his pocket: a small, blank card, which he held out in front of him. "_Card Force Activate: Address Data – Amachi Kenky__ū__jo_."

The card in his hand responded instantly, gleaming in response to the command. After a moment, the light dimmed, and he held the card out to Subaru's mother.

"Here, Akane. This is for you and Subaru. It's where I work now; you know I quit WAXA? I started an independent research facility so I could keep looking for him. Come and visit some time; we can have lunch. Like old times."

Akane looked intensely at him, ignoring the card. "You didn't."

"Of course I did," said Mamoru seriously. "What do you think I've been doing these past seven years? Twiddling my thumbs? I've been working on establishing myself independently of those corporate nimrods at WAXA. Why do you think I came all the way out here after all this time? To play backgammon?"

"You mean you've been working on that for all this time? You went into hiding, you missed Daigo's funeral, you quit a healthy, respectable job for _that_? Mamoru, the _Peace_ was destroyed! The crew is dead, burnt to ash, gone! Everyone's gone." Akane's eyes twitched at the last words.

"I don't believe it," said Mamoru quietly. "I refuse to believe that's the end of this story."

"What story?" demanded Akane, her voice rising. "_Peace_ fell to earth in disaster! There was nothing but reentry wreckage; any members of the crew would have burnt to ash!"

"That's exactly why I refuse to believe it," maintained Mamoru solemnly. "The _Peace_ was far too sturdy to be so ridiculously damaged, even by reentry or outside damage. I can only assume something else happened."

"Yeah?" exclaimed Akane, her voice and temper rising. "Like what?"

Mamoru hesitated, showing weakness for the first time. "I- I don't know."

"No, really?" said Akane bitterly. "Face it, Mamoru, the _Peace_ was a failure. My husband led a crew of men to their deaths on a search for another world based on some moronic idea he had, and now none of them will ever come back! You think I'm the only one who's suffered? There are whole families all over the world trying to move on! Why can't you just let them rest in peace?"

"Because I can't believe they're not out there somewhere," said Mamoru. "Your husband was a brilliant man, Akane, a pioneer! It's thanks to him we have these!" He threw his arm up, exhibiting the machine on it..

"Transer technology is his brainchild! The three Satellites that help maintain this world are his magnum opus! The man was incredible! Those men who went with him were all skeptics and non-believers, but he convinced them all the same! They had absolute faith in him! You can't possibly think–"

"You think you know him so well?" retorted Akane. "Let me tell you something, Mamoru. Of course he was smart, but you forget how he was so charismatic. He could make men dream, make them believe in a happy ending. That was how he got that crew. He had a zany idea that he knew how to word the right way to get himself a space station dedicated to finding this make-believe planet that got him killed!"

Mamoru regarded the woman before him solemnly, almost as though he were appraising a stranger. "Daigo's not the only thing here that died, Akane," he said quietly. "I noticed it when I first stepped through that front door of yours."

Akane raised an eyebrow scornfully, which Mamoru accepted as her response in full.

"This house has turned into a wretched little hole over the past seven years, and I'll tell you why. You want ME to move on? Take a look around you! You get upset merely thinking about Daigo – you haven't moved on at all! And just think about that kid of yours! He's freaking _fourteen_! The only things he should care about now are sports and girls, and yet he's so miserable that I'm starting to believe he hardly knows what either of them are! Damnit, what kind of mother lets that happen to her son?"

His words took effect immediately; Akane's expression had completely changed to one of shock – Mamoru might very well have struck her across the face (to be honest, he was sorely tempted). Her mouth moved desperately, but she couldn't muster even a word, much less a response.

"The only thing that's really died here is your faith," Mamoru was now speaking silently, but every word was clear. "You've lost your ability to hope for even the smallest happy ending; you find no reason to get up in the morning except that it's easier to just go through the motions, which I can only assume is why you haven't collapsed into depression."

Akane watched Mamoru turn and walk away, her mind frozen. He reached the door and put his hand on the knob, and then looked back at her. "Akane, please, don't let it end this way. You have a life to live, and so does Subaru. Don't do it like this."

Twisting the knob and pushing the door open, Mamoru made his way out onto the porch, hesitating just before he stepped onto the sidewalk. "Oh, one last thing. Turns out I'm not the only guy who's come out of hiding – I happened to see Shin the other day. He told me to say 'Hello.'"

And then the door swung shut and Mamoru was walking down the street, and Akane was alone again, so much information and emotion coursing through her that she could do nothing but collapse upon the sofa in exhaustion and begin to cry.

* * *

Subaru maintained a fairly regular schedule. His day was mostly devoted to staring up through the clouds, but his nights were spent atop a large hill to the northeast of Kodama Town by a lake, where one would find the Observatory.

The Observatory had once upon a time been a miniature research center and museum, a subsidiary of WAXA's, though following the Peace incident, flagging attendance had caused WAXA to give up the property as a bad job, relocating its scientists and much of its resources, donating the remnant property – which amounted to little more than a few telescopes and bizarrely, an ancient locomotive that had been part of its museum exhibit on ancient technology that had proved too bothersome to remove – to Kodama Town, which had turned it into a small park.

It was a fairly popular hangout for the residents of Kodama during the day, especially for the kids who would play tag or hide-and-seek around the locomotive, but what Subaru appreciated it for was its after-hours appeal (and not the uncouth kind) – the Observatory had the best stargazing around, or, at least, suffered the least from the sky glow of Subaru's hometown. It wasn't perhaps as close to the sky as the roof of the school, but Subaru didn't go to school.

But from where he was standing, it would be half-an-hour before the first stars began to glimmer, which was plenty of time for him to reach the Observatory, but was also plenty of time for plenty of other things, too, such as the first of several interruptions catching up with him. "Oy, Subaru!"

Subaru recognized the voice – he'd heard it not fifteen minutes ago. Sure enough, Subaru looked over his shoulder to discover Amachi Mamoru jogging up to catch him. "Hello, Amachi-san. Can I help you?"

"Yeah," gasped Amachi as he drew to a halt. "Don't be so formal."

Apparently the man preferred the activity of a scientist to that of an athlete, to judge from his panting. After a moment, though, he was able to right himself. "Here, I've got something else for you – I would've given it to you earlier, but you skedaddled pretty fast, there. Your mom didn't want it, so I figured I might as well try and find you."

Subaru gazed steadily at the card Mamoru handed him. It was a standard issue Blank Card model, but with a Rewrite already enacted.

"Amaken?" he said, shortening the name to something slightly easier on the tongue.

Mamoru grinned. "Little research center I started up to keep looking for your old man when WAXA gave it up as a bad job, with a museum about space as a bit of a revenue operation to keep it going."

Subaru paused, looking up at Mamoru. "Amachi-san, my father is dead."

Mamoru stared back evenly. "You don't know that."

"Amachi-san, the _Peace-_"

"Oh, shut up about the damned _Peace._ I just had that argument with your mother."

Subaru couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the man before him. "Amachi-san, I understand how you may feel, but the only logical outcome is that my father is dead. His station was destroyed and fell to earth, even if they somehow survived whatever destroyed the ship, it's been seven years. The crew couldn't possibly have that much oxygen, so even if they're floating around somewhere out there, it's as cold, dead body frags."

Amachi looked evenly at Subaru. "You don't know that."

Subaru, whose logic simply couldn't keep up with Amachi's determination in the face of fact, said nothing, and so Amachi continued. "Tell me, Subaru, have you ever seen your father's corpse?"

The younger of the two suddenly found his voice, but it came only in fits and spurts. "Wha- I don't- How on _earth_ can you ask me that?"

"Have you?"

"Of course I haven't! No one has!"

"Exactly my point," said Amachi evenly. "The only way to really know if your father was dead would be to know he was a corpse. As we don't know what happened to any of the crew, it's just as possible to assume he's alive as it is to assume he's dead."

Subaru regained his composure. "Amachi-san, the Peace was destroyed in space – the vacuum would have instantly ripped the crew members apart. Even those frags of the crew falling to earth would be a trillion-to-one chance."

Mamoru stood his ground. "Yeah? What if I told you I don't believe in chance?"

Subaru was growing increasingly irritated. "Look, Amachi-san, I mean you no disrespect, truly, I don't, but I'd would really prefer to go, now. I have something that I was planning on doing. Good night, and I hope you have a safe trip home." He rounded on his heel.

"Oh, come on, Subaru, staring up at the stars won't bring your pop back."

He promptly stopped in his tracks, wheeling back around to glare at Mamoru. "Don't you think I know that?" Subaru demanded. "Do you honestly think I'm that heartless? You have no idea who I am or what I do. Has it never occurred to you that I prayed and wished for my father to come back home for years after the _Peace_ came crashing down? I wanted so bad to see him again, for him to come back and fix the mess that I call home... but I won't ever see him again! I go 'stare at the stars' because it's the last bit of him I have left! Don't make me have to throw that away, too!"

Subaru discovered himself breathing heavily, and, unless he was mistaken, he was beginning to cry a little, too. He wiped his tears away, forcing himself to regain composure. "I apologize for shouting like that, Amachi-san. Please excuse me." He had to get away from this man, to hide from the reality that his father wouldn't ever come back. "I understand how you feel, Amachi-san, and I wish you were right, but I can't help but accept that he and the crew of the space station were lost when that meteor struck it."

Mamoru looked hard at Subaru, as if he were deciding something. "Subaru, what would you say if I told you that the Peace _wasn_'_t_ destroyed by an impact?"

"I would say – wait, what do you mean _it wasn't an impact_? The news service-"

"Is more concerned with selling a story than with boring old fact," interrupted Mamoru, enjoying a smug little smile as he turned away from Subaru. "C'mon, you should be enough of a cynic to realize that. It just bet on drama instead of on mystery. Me, I've been trying to figure why that remnant of the _Peace_ looks like shredded paper." As if on cue, his Transer beeped, and he stole a quick glance at it.

Subaru opened his mouth to say something, but the man had started jogging away. "Sorry, kid! I gotta get going! Left my partner in crime at the station an hour ago!"

Subaru did the one thing he could think to do, and charged after Mamoru. "Wait!" Unfortunately, it seemed that Mamoru was a much better athlete than he let on, easily outdistancing the scrawny teenager.

Subaru quickly found himself alone on the street, and, exhausted, he slowed down to a staggering walk. What was he doing? The word of some dreamer like Amachi Mamoru was hardly worth acknowledging, let alone putting any investment in. Subaru quickly shoved the rewritten Card in his pocket and resumed his walk.

The sun had crossed half way over the horizon and was blazing red, casting long shadows from the houses over the street and other houses. Subaru found himself slightly more at ease – he much preferred the shade, and he wasn't saying "no" to the cool breeze, either.

After a moment, he reached the edge of the sidewalk, waiting to cross the street as the bus that was undoubtedly carrying Amachi Mamoru away drove past. Indifferently, he crossed the street and turned north.

Subaru trudged down the street towards the Observatory, seeing few others, mostly some children heading home after a day of play and a couple walking in the opposite direction, arm in arm, though none of them stood out nearly so much as the man Subaru passed as he rounded another corner, who was wearing what looked to be a short cape made of silvery cloth over what were a business shirt and gray pants, whistling cheerfully as he strolled past. As he wasn't paying attention at first, Subaru didn't recognized the oddity until it had nearly past him, and when he turned around, the man was gone.

It was approaching sunset, and so Subaru picked up his pace slightly. Finally, he found himself standing at the foot of the hill the Observatory rested on, just on the other side of a flight of stairs.

"Hello! You there, in the red shirt!"

Oh, for CRYING OUT LOUD, would he NEVER get there? Subaru looked over his shoulder to discover who had hailed him.

Oh, wonderful. Three times the fun.

Approaching him was a girl flanked by two boys, whom Subaru figured averaged to be about his age, despite the nearly laughable discrepancies in their anatomies.

The girl herself Subaru assumed to be the leader, judging from the fact that she seemed the most professional of the three unknowns, and perhaps also from her truly ostentatious golden curls, which were perhaps her most outstanding feature – the only time Subaru had ever seen this particular coiffure had been on the cover of a fashion magazine, so he assumed it was less strange than he first thought.

To her left was a much larger, much less perspicacious-looking boy who was easily two or three times Subaru's size, who seemed, according to the crossed knife and fork design on his shirt, to have a certain fondness for eating.

To the girl's right was a boy in serious need of puberty, made all the more egregious when you considered him in contrast to the young giant on the girl's opposite side, though Subaru found himself somewhat distracted by the smallest's valiant, if horrifyingly doomed, attempt at a welcoming smile.

"Can I help you?" Subaru asked unenthusiastically, hoping that he please, please, _please_ couldn't.

The girl at first didn't seem to hear him, instead turning to the smaller boy. "Is this the one?"

The boy adjusted his glasses and nodded. "Hoshikawa Subaru, age 15, hasn't gone to school in seven years, two months, three weeks and eight days – extended member of the Kodama High Freshmen Class. He's our man."

Subaru couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at how the smallest of the three managed to balance between the realms of intelligence, social ineptitude, and obsession with such eloquence – to call him a nerd would simply fail to encompass the sheer enormity of it.

Upon receiving this verification, the girl turned towards Subaru, stepping forward, just in case he hadn't quite figured out he hadn't figured who exactly was in charge, here.

"Hello, there!" said the girl in a bright, if somewhat imperious voice. "Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Shirogane Luna, and these are my associates, Ushijima Gonta and Saishouin Kizamaro," she indicated the ox and the spider monkey in turn. "We represent the student body of the local high school. Well, I do, mind you, these two are simply aides."

If she was expecting him to be impressed, she was sorely mistaken.

"Hey!" said Gonta after a moment of Subaru's unresponsiveness. "Iinchou was speaking to you! Say something!"

"Yeah!" squeaked Kizamaro. "Show some respect!"

Subaru decided he might as well go with it – it was easier than picking a fight with the girl's bruiser.

"What do you want?" He didn't have to like it, though.

"Well, as representative of the freshman class and potential student body president, I have taken it upon myself to ensure and maintain the efficiency and dedication of the freshmen, a group of students to which you belong."

"I homeschool," said Subaru quickly.

"Correction," asserted Kizamaro, his tiny, hunched body emerging just enough from behind Luna to leer at Subaru. "You work under an extended program – you still study school-appointed material, you merely complete it from the comfort of your bedroom, though not nearly as well as you might."

Oh, Subaru _really _wanted to wipe the smirk off of that face.

"As such," said Luna, picking up the conversation, "we have decided it necessary that you come to school, so we can monitor your studies and perhaps improve them."

"Because you're just a good person, right? Simply doing your duty?" said Subaru, irony practically oozing from his voice.

Luna smiled, recognizing that Subaru wasn't going to be convinced so easily. "Well, let's put it this way. It would look very good for me if you came to school, and once I've gotten what _I_ want, we can work out something that you would benefit from, hmm? Do you play sports? I can probably arrange for a spot on a team somewhere."

If Subaru wasn't so annoyed, he might've laughed at her. At least this Shirogane girl wasn't beating around the bush.

"I'm sorry, I've got nothing to do with you," said Subaru. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have something to do elsewhere." As he spoke, he looked up at the sky. He had missed watching the first few stars twinkle into view, and as he didn't feel like waiting for a response, he pivoted on his heel and walked away.

"Hey!" cried Gonta, starting after him. "You come back here and apologize, jerk! Iinchou's trying to make you a deal!"

"Gonta-san!" snapped Luna, rounding on him. "Stop that this instant! You aren't helping anything by doing that."

Gonta immediately stopped and returned, looking upset. "But he's being rude."

"And threatening to beat him up is going to help how?" said Luna.

Gonta looked down, embarrassed. "I thought he could use some convincing."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Gonta, you're in high school. At some point, you're going to have to start using your brain! Hoshikawa-san isn't the kind of person who you can bully and intimidate, he's too smart for that. We're going to have to convince him some other way."

"But I thought he wasn't good at his studies," said Gonta, confused.

Luna struggled to maintain her composure. "There's more than one way of being intelligent, Gonta-san. Take Kizamaro-kun, here. He can do calculus on the back of his hand. Can I do that? No. Me, I'm better at the politics kind of smart. For example, Hoshikawa-san is under the impression that not going to school is a better choice for himself. We'll need to find a way to convince him otherwise, and not. Through. _Force_," she emphasized, glaring at Gonta.

She quickly rounded on her heel and began to walk away, with Gonta and a decidedly smug-looking Kizamaro tagging along behind. "Now, we're going to try again, naturally, though we'll have to take a different approach. We'll just be on guard for when the opportunity comes knocking. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Iinchou," answered the boys as the group of three walked back towards the residential district of the town.

It was definitely night when Subaru finally finished hiking up the hill's stairs to reach the Observatory. The stars above him were bright, twinkling away as he trudged up the last few steps. With an exhausted sigh, he collapsed on a bench and just sat for a few minutes, resting and reflecting on his day, or, really, just the past hour.

He let his head fall backwards over the edge of the bench with a groan, and then emitted another one when his Transer beeped at him. With a sullen glare at the offending article, he held his arm up and traced a square with his finger, which summoned a wave-screen of similar size.

He gazed at the screen, examining the list of data before him. Spam, spam, spam... aha. Oh, great. A wavecast from the almighty Iinchou.

'Hoshikawa Subaru' (How the hell did she get his dispatch-ensign? Did that pet nerd of hers hack his Transer?)

'Subject: Review'

'Hoshikawa-san, I wish to apologize for our meeting going... shall we say 'sour'? I understand that you have very little desire to attend, if any at all, while I have a very great desire for you to attend, which leaves us at something of an impasse. I am willing to negotiate and discuss terms.  
On a more conversational note, have you received the new Brother Band upgrade? I recently obtained the newest version, and I was uncertain as to whether or not you did as well, as your Kizuna level reading is, well, nonexistent. Just in case, I have included a tutorial on how to–'

Subaru disintegrated the screen by swiping his fingers through it, which, while not exactly the standard or proper method of closing a wave-screen, was far more in tune with his mood. With yet another groan, he heaved himself up onto his feet and sauntered a way from the bench, past the egregiously present locomotive.

In front of him was a set of stairs that led up towards some scaffolding, the last remnants of the original observatory. At the top one could find a few telescopes, all of which had been modified for free use – on any other night, he would be crouching over one, humming to himself as he examined the stars, maybe even having brought a notebook with him to keep track.

Tonight, he wasn't feeling up to it. Today had been a very off day, with too many emotional highs and lows for Subaru's taste.

"Why me?" mumbled Subaru tiredly at no one in particular.

He leaned against the western railing and looked up at the stars, quietly taking in the magnificence of the heavens.

"Hey, Dad," he whispered after a moment. "It's me again."

The stars above twinkled away beyond him as they'd been doing since the dawn of time, concerned with a world where the glorious hopes and dreams of humankind were as significant as ant-poop. Subaru sighed, feeling very, very small and unimportant.

His father had been different. Hoshikawa Daigo had believed in a greater destiny. _"You know what makes humans special, Subaru? We're the one species on this earth that asks questions. Nothing else from this planet can make that same claim – even the smartest apes and dolphins are only concerned with figuring out how to fulfill their needs. Humans have already gotten theirs – we have shelter, food, and water, and yet we still want more – we have a natural urge to see more of this great universe!_"

"I met a friend of yours today – Amachi-san. He seems nice."

_'Don't make me throw that away, too!'_ Subaru forced himself to bury the sudden thought.

"He gave me these," continued Subaru, indicating the Visualizer still perched atop his head. "I still have no idea what they do, though. Are they supposed to see things normal people can't?"

Subaru hesitated for a moment, considering. The idea that had just popped into his head was ludicrous – how incredibly like him to imagine seeing the invisible. But this idea just wouldn't go away, that the Visualizer was somehow supposed to be able to see something. It had to be the name – if Hoshikawa Daigo had gone so far as to name such a strange-looking pair of sunglasses the "Visualizer", something was probably up with them. Still, no matter how he tried to rationalize it, Subaru couldn't help but shake the feeling that these were special.

And then it hit him. The most ludicrous idea of all. He had no will to shake it – somehow, if he put on these glasses, he might just see his father. He couldn't help it – the terrible, wonderful image of his father smiling at him had overwritten the cold, base logic he was so familiar with. Slowly, he closed his eyes, and slid the Visualizer over them, facing the heavens. He took a shaky breath and then opened his eyes.

The stars above twinkled away beyond him as they'd been doing since the dawn of time, concerned with a world where the glorious hopes and dreams of humankind were as significant as ant-poop. This time, however, they all looked green.

Subaru couldn't help it – he threw his head back and laughed. He laughed long and hard, with a mirthless cry that announced the understanding that things could not get worse, that heartless, mocking laugh that Subaru had been waiting to release for seven years.

What was he thinking? What could he possibly have been thinking? There was nothing special about these glasses. There was nothing special about the sky. And there had especially been nothing special about his idiot father who tossed people up and promised to catch them when he couldn't.

"You know what?" said Subaru staring up at the heavens as if they were listening. "I'm done with this. I'm done with it all. You have your dreams, your hopes – me? I've got my reality, and I'll stick with it if you don't mind."

The smallest trace of wistfulness curled his lip. "I only wish that Dad could have done that, too."

And then it happened – a shooting star shot across the field of his vision. Subaru blinked, stunned, and then laughed even harder. What, was the universe promising to make a wish retroactively come true?

...Well, even if it wasn't interested in granting wishes, it was certainly up to something. The shooting star rocketed overhead again, this time in the opposite direction. This movement, however, produced something Subaru hadn't expected: a soft yet crystal-clear note that seemed to penetrate Subaru's whole body. And then it sang out again, as the shooting star above arced in a different direction. Subaru tore off the Visualizer to see more clearly, only to find that he couldn't see the bizarre meteor any more. He stared at the Visualizer in his hand for a moment before immediately re-donning it.

The tone rang out a third time, and this time, Subaru's realized exactly where the magical note was coming from – the small shooting star pendant his father had used to wear before he left on the expedition he would never return from. And then his Transer answered it with a small _Ping_. And then another, and another, as the star above him continued to dance.

Subaru looked as his Transer, and then registered a double-take. It was a wave-cast, which was somehow completely blank, there wasn't a message, a subject line, or even a target-ensign. There was only an access signal and the accompanying image – and it was his dad's. Hoshikawa Daigo was smiling at his son again.

The conversing tones from his pendant and from his Transer suddenly sped up, and Subaru whipped his head up to find the star again. Incredibly, while it was still dancing around wildly, it was growing larger – no longer was it a mere line of light in the night sky. After a moment of this, it steadied itself in the center of his vision, and began to grow much larger at a higher speed. And then Subaru realized that it wasn't getting larger - it was instead honing in on him like some cosmic sniper bullet.

Subaru wondered exactly how much the universe was concerned with him. "I take back the wish!" he said, knowing full well that the shooting star probably wouldn't care. Indeed, the shooting star would have none of it, and sledgehammered Subaru straight in the chest.

Subaru was floating along in a sea of white. Gradually, he became aware of a small song playing in the back of his mind, which slowly turned into a voice. Curious, Subaru wondered what it wanted.

"So this is earth." So it was completely ignoring him. Of course.

...Subaru's awareness of the world around him came back to him in fits and spurts. With a groan, he heaved himself into a sitting position, and shook his head blearily. Despite the fact that he felt like he'd been hit by a truck, he was mildly aware that the weight of the Visualizer was missing, and he fished around for a moment before he rediscovered them and put them on.

"And you are Shin, correct? I was under the assumption you'd be bigger."

Subaru then realized where the words were coming from. Floating nonchalantly above him was one of the weirdest things he'd ever seen – a creature whose body seemed to consist of some kind of visible electromagnetic field (a flaming green electromagnetic field, for that matter) that was clad (how do you garb an electromagnetic field? How do you SEE an electromagnetic field to garb it in the first place?) with what appeared to be a kind of blue body armor that consisted of a torso and some beast-like head that looked to be some combination of bear and dog (and yet like nothing Subaru was familiar with, a trait of this creature that was becoming somewhat redundant). After a moment, Subaru realized that the two floating armored rings were bracelets attached to its electromagnetic field-arms (at this point Subaru figured he might as well roll with it, as he was now fairly certain he was having a lucid dream).

"Shin?" said Subaru. "Uh, no. Never heard the name before."

Surprisingly, the creature's beast-like face assumed an expression that was undoubtedly puzzled. "You can see me? Humans shouldn't be able to see me."

Subaru figured he probably shouldn't point out the oddity of first addressing him by name (inaccurate as it – he? – had been) and then wondering how he could be seen. "I have no idea, either, to be honest."

Subaru moved to stand, but the sudden movement made his head spin violently – his glasses slid off of his nose as he seized the railing and vomited gracelessly over the side of the scaffolding. The burning, acidic taste of the vomit told him that this wasn't a dream; he wouldn't feel such physical misery in a dream. He wasn't feeling much better for the realization, though.

"Ah, yes. I know what you are doing – this is the human activity known as barfing, correct?"

"You got it," wheezed Subaru, wiping his mouth as he turn around, and then, "Where'd you go?"

"I have not moved since you demonstrated your capacity for dispensing vomit."

Suspicious, Subaru picked up his glasses and placed them back on the bridge of his nose. Sure enough, the creature was still there, looking at him from the other side of the Visualizer lens. "Ah. So that's how it works."

"Intriguing. Is that what is called the Visualizer?" asked the creature, snaking closer towards Subaru through the air to get a better look.

Subaru raised an eyebrow. "How do you know about the Visualizer?"

"Hoshikawa Daigo told me to find the human who bore the visualizer and that he had given it to a man named Shin, who wore an transmitter in the shape of what he called a shooting star."

Subaru hesitated. "Hoshikawa Daigo? You knew my father?"

"Father?" the term seemed alien to the creature. "You have some relationship with Daigo?"

"I'm his son."

"Then you are the Hoshikawa Subaru that he spoke of," realized the creature. "I thought you would be smaller."

"Great, first I'm too small, now I'm too big," muttered Subaru. "Who are you and how do you know my father?"

"I am... War Rock," said the creature (it certainly seemed to be male from its voice alone). "I am a renegade from the planet of the Shuuhatsuujin. Since I turned rogue I have been waging battles across the cosmos for the better part of the past seven of your years in order to seek out this Shin Hoshikawa Daigo told me existed."

"Wait, you came from space?" said Subaru. "So you're an actual _alien_?"

"I might very well say the same thing about your father," said the creature called War Rock, a little miffed (apparently aliens could feel miffed).

"Wait," said Subaru suddenly, whipping his head around. "So my dad was right! This is... _incredible!_"

War Rock cocked its head curiously on its side. "Your father was correct about what?"

"That there was life out there!" exclaimed Subaru. "But wait... then why did the Peace fall to earth?"

"The Peace?" repeated War Rock. "Oh, you refer to his vessel for traveling through Deep Heaven."

"Yeah, that," said Subaru.

War Rock hesitated, and in that moment he lost his opportunity to answer. The world around them began to shake violently, causing Subaru to lose his already shaky footing. With an unpleasant thud, he landed on his back and smacked the back of his head.

With a groan, he looked up noticing something he hadn't before. Through the Visualizer he saw what he could only describe as a labyrinth in the sky made of paths of light miles above him. He had never seen it before, yet knew exactly what it was.

"Is that the Wave Road?" Subaru groaned, getting to his feet.

"The Wave Road?"

"Our information transit network," explained Subaru. "We used to call it the internet until we lost the ability to contain it within out computers, so it exploded out and became part of world, too. I never actually expected it to be a _road, _though." Truth be told, he'd always thought it was a stupid name for it; now that he saw it, though, he was rapidly reassessing his position.

"Impressive. How much information do you humans go through?" said War Rock, likewise watching the sky.

"A _lot_," Subaru emphasized. "We have to make up words to describe it. But what's going on with it?"

The Wave Road above them, which the Visualizer had magnified in response to his eyes focusing on it, was shaking erratically, splintering in several spaces as dots of light not unlike War Rock's original appearance were dancing about.

"Ah, yes. There they are," said War Rock, though Subaru could hear a low growl coming from the otherworldly creature. "I was wondering when they would choose to appear – hiding would be an unusual tactic at this point in time."

"They?" said Subaru, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. "Who's they?"

"Do you recall, Son of Daigo, that I said I've been fighting for seven of your years to get here?" said War Rock, not really waiting for an answer. "I've been escaping their hunting beasts."

"Hunting beasts?"demanded Subaru.

War Rock paid him no heed. "When I first arrived, I was attacked by a powerful force that took the form of a large human in black armor and a blue cape. He engaged me in battle as I tried to enter your atmosphere. It took a moment of explanation, but when my assailants showed up and validated my story, he let me pass to find the man called Shin."

The vibration of the air intensified, and Subaru could only barely hear War Rock's continued speech (if it could really be called that).

"He seemed as though he would be able to fight off the beasts. Either that was not the case, or the beasts received reinforcement."

Subaru hesitated. "Wait, they're fighting Colonel?"

"Who?"

"That's the name of the defense system! Colonel! They're battling Colonel!." And winning, it seemed, though Subaru didn't particularly want to admit this.

The lights above suddenly exploded outward, traveling away and _down_, Subaru realized, from the Wave Road.

"Reinforcements," affirmed War Rock. "They've had reinforcements here?"

"Who reinforced them? Oh, crap," Subaru realized. "Virii."

"Virii?" repeated War Rock curiously.

The locomotive suddenly let out a long, shrill whistle. Ever so slowly, it's wheels began to turn.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" groaned Subaru.

The locomotive was situated on a long stretch of track that came to an end roughly thirty feet in front of the train. As there had been no need for it, the track had never had any measures that would prevent the train from rolling off the end. Which in turn put nothing in its way.

"It would seem the hunting beasts and your "virii" have joined forces," said War Rock. "And apparently the virii are roughly as intelligent as the hunting beasts. They've missed me entirely."

"So, you're safe then?" said Subaru, waiting for the catch.

"Relatively. It seems, however, that they plan on using that bizarre machine to search for me in the local area."

The ramifications hit Subaru hard. "But they'll destroy the town if they crack that thing! Damnit!" He sprinted away from War Rock and down the scaffolding stairs, finding War Rock floating easily along beside him.

The train's wheels were so old that it would take some time before they could really begin to roll, though Subaru had very little intention of letting that happen.

"What are you doing?" asked War Rock as Subaru leapt into the engine of the train, dashing over to the console.

"I plan on stopping the viruses," said Subaru. "Colonel's defense systems are incredibly effective against malicious and irregular programming, but these new virii are different. Too many of them and the system gets overwhelmed. Your hunting beasts probably didn't help."

Subaru shoved a hand into the pack he carried around his waist and drew out a few cards, flipping open his Transer and summoning another wave-screen.

Lines and lines of code streamed across the screen in front of them, unintelligible to War Rock, though Subaru seemed to understand. War Rock watched as Subaru began tracing his fingers across the screen, and then he halted, selecting one line of code that looked to be rapidly disappearing. He took one of the cards, and swiped it through the corresponding Transer slot. "_Battle Card: Cannon_."

The line of code ceased disappearing after a moment, but Subaru waited, unsure. Sure enough, the line resumed evaporating, eliciting a swear from Subaru.

"Your hunting beasts aren't helping," he growled.

"Why do you take such issue with these "virii"? You are relatively safe from this machine, are you not?"

Subaru hesitated. "Yeah, but people will get hurt if I let them hack the train. And if they're gonna stampede all over town, my mother might get hurt, too. I won't let that happen."

"Your mother?" repeated War Rock,

"Did my father ever mention a woman named Akane?" asked Subaru, swiping another Battle Card, which had only a temporary effect. The locomotive whistled again, and the whole train lurched forward suddenly.

Subaru swore again. "There's something wrong here! Are your hunting beasts intelligent?" he asked. "Like you or me?"

War Rock shook its head, which in calmer settings Subaru might've thought looked freaky. "I thought so," he said instead, returning to the wave-screen. "These things are responding to me directly; they're trying to lock me out of the system."

"Which means...?"

"That there's somebody else in there; somebody wants to keep me out, so I won't be able to do any– _CRAP_!"

Subaru's Transer bleeped at him, and the flashing red word "LOCKED" appeared across the wave-screen. The locomotive lurched forward again, and Subaru was knocked off of his feet. With a groan, he regained his footing, only to find the train was now inching forward. The whistle sounded a third time, and the speed picked up slightly.

"This machine makes an incredible amount of noise," noted War Rock. "Surely the other humans should be able to hear it."

"Maybe, but they're probably too busy watching wave-screen television. Even if they did hear it, they'd probably assume some neighborhood delinquent was messing around after hours." Subaru, approached the main console of the locomotive, attempting to access it directly. "Damn. IT. Little buggers have totally locked it down! I can't get in!"

"Do you want to?"

Subaru looked over his shoulder at the beast. "What was that?"

"Do you want to enter this console?" repeated War Rock.

Subaru looked at the creature beside him strangely. "I meant I want to destroy the virii. I can't get into the computer system to do it though, I can't hack their password."

"I understand what you meant, Hoshikawa Subaru. The question here is do you want to stop these creatures?"

"Virii aren't creatures, they're weird bits of code, but yeah, of course, I do! What do you think I'm here for?"

"Very well, Son of Daigo," said War Rock. "Then I will help you."

"Wait, what are you doing?"

Subaru had no time to react before it happened. War Rock flared brilliantly, and then with a growl, flew into his Transer. "Son of Daigo, bring forth a Blank piece of the Card Force."

Stunned, Subaru did as he was told, holding up a card. "Like this? Hey, what are you doing?"

The card began to glow brightly, and Subaru realized War Rock was forcing a Rewrite upon the card, somehow. "Now use it as you would another piece of the Card Force. We shall fight them together."

Subaru hesitated for a moment, the train rattling as it continued to move forward.

"Do you not trust me, Son of Daigo?"

"Well, to be fair, I only just met you. And you keep calling me that."

"Do you trust your father then? This technique was his idea."

Subaru stared at the screen of his Transer, from which War Rock stared evenly back. Then he gritted his teeth. "If you say so!" he said as he swiped the card through his Transer.

The effect was instantaneous. Subaru felt suddenly very dizzy, letting his eyes close as strange words came from his mouth. "_Denpa-Henkan. Hoshikawa Subaru: On Air!_"

Despite his eyes being closed, Subaru could somehow understand what was going on around him, almost as though he were seeing it first hand. War Rock was swirling around him, coiling about him and bathing him in his essence, and then the alien wrapped its arms around him and the incredible _energy_ surged through Subaru's body like the birth of a star – it was... _galvanizing_.

Subaru opened his eyes.

The first thing he noticed was that the room around him seemed smaller than he remembered it, and then he realized he'd grown taller; it was as though he'd suddenly grown two or three years older. As he examined himself with growing apprehension, he realized he was now clad in some kind of blue body suit, with a thick set of boots that felt absolutely weightless. From his torso up, he recognized what had been War Rock's armor, though it had been shrunken and molded to his chest and shoulders, except for the emblem emerging from the center, which Subaru recognized as his Shooting Star pendant. Suddenly he discovered he was looking through some sort of visor, which was in turn part of a partial helmet his head was now clad in, something which felt so natural it was startling.

"So, what do you think of it, Son of Daigo?"

With a horrible shock, Subaru realized War Rock was there as well: his head had replaced Subaru's left hand, and the strange green flames were emerging from the back of the alien's skull, engulfing his arm. It was wholly impossible to tell where his arm ended and the alien's began.

"I think I HATE IT! What did you do to me? Change me back!"

"You just told me you were willing to enact this change. Were you being untruthful?" asked War Rock, swiveling Subaru's own arm around so they could talk face to face.

"Untruthful? You never said anything about combining! I want my body back!"

"This _is_ your body," answered War Rock calmly. "I am simply sharing it through your Transer. Now then, I believe you wanted to bring a halt to this machine."

Subaru hesitated. "Wait, we can bypass that lock out like this?"

"That is what you wished, correct? We simply shall do so in a way you could never have comprehended," answered War Rock. "Do you still wish to? You may still stand down, Son of Daigo."

Subaru stared at War Rock, and then turned his gaze to the Locomotive's computer terminal. "Alright. Do whatever it is you've been promising."

"As you wish. Be warned, you may not be ready for this experience."

Subaru swallowed and gritted his teeth. "Let's get it over with."

"Very well. Pronounce as I do. _Wave In._"

Subaru hesitated, and then nodded. "_Wave In!_" And in a flash, he was gone.

Subaru had discovered something. Waving In made him very, very queasy. Swaying, he clutched at his stomach before planting his feet, looking around him to try and discern where he was – he instinctively realized it to be the interior of the locomotive's computer.

"Excellent, they haven't noticed us. Now, Son of Daigo, where among the hunting beasts are your virii hiding?"

Subaru looked around, and then he saw the monsters. There were dozens of them, each in a different, bizarre form. Some of them were little, almost cute, black bodies marching about with hard hats and pick axes, some took the form of maliciously grinning unicycles (of all things), and others took the form of large, flaming lizards, each hissing in some flaming tongue.

"No way," said Subaru after a moment. "These are all _virii_."

"Would you care to repeat that?" said War Rock, for once thrown off. "I see nothing but hunting beasts."

"All these creatures... I've seen them all a hundred times. They were part of the Wave Battle game."

"Wave Battle?"

Subaru danced backwards as one of the virii walked by, oblivious to him. "The Wave Battle game was started... almost as soon as the Peace fell back to Earth, now that I think about it. You could buy or trade Battle Cards to use against these monsters that you could find just about anywhere online, and if you did a good job, you got more Battle Cards. I'd always thought the monsters were just child-appeal images superimposed over the actual virii for the Wave Battle simulations, not actually _real_."

"Oh, we're _real_, my friend. _Very_ real."

Subaru whipped his head around, only to see a blur of some kind of brown, before stars exploded in front of his eyes – whatever had just spoken to him had just punched him into the air.

Subaru landed painfully against the bizarre landscape of the computer terminal some dozen feet away. Wincing, he felt his cheek – judging from the pain, Subaru guessed that his cheek and jaw would have been shattered in normal circumstances.

"Hmm, you are _sturdy_, child. Very good. We are glad to see you are not as weak as you looked from the outside."

Subaru looked up to see... well, he wasn't sure how to describe it. It seemed human-like, having a similar anatomy and proportions, though it seemed to be clad in some kind of bizarre, malevolent suit of armor. Subaru could see no mouth, and the eyes from behind the newcomer's helmet visor gleamed red at him.

"War Rock, what is that thing?"

"I have no idea as to what that being is. I assumed you would know, this being your planet."

"Beats me."

"Strange creature!" called out War Rock from Subaru's left arm, clearly dissatisfied with this lack of knowledge. "What are you and what is your business here?"

The strange creature paused, and then began to cackle in a strange voice somewhere between the crackle of electricity and the deep echo of a cave. "We are the Jamming. Masters of beasts and scourge of worlds." At the Jamming's words, the virii monsters all turned to face Subaru and War Rock.

"I do believe I understand what is going on, here, Son of Daigo," said War Rock. "This Jamming creature is a fused form, like you and I. However, he is a man who has been fused to the lesser beast _denpa_, whereas I am a higher _denpa_ than him, which is why you still retain aspects of your original form."

"So, wait, he did what you and I did with a _virus_?" said Subaru, looking at War Rock in horror.

"Exactly, though I highly doubt he knew enough of what was happening to do it willingly. This form is likely highly unhealthy for the human involved – these "virii_"_ are corrosive by nature. And, now that it's been fused to a human brain, this one is intelligent."

"We are pleased with your assessment, War Rock the traitor. You are likewise correct in your assessment – our human body lacks the physical stamina to survive for long."

"Our?" repeated Subaru, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

"Their minds are fused," explained War Rock. "This would be a natural consequence of such a fusion, which is why I performed _ours_ through your Transer technology."

"So, are you the thing that was locking me out?" demanded Subaru.

"Your human host shows only rudimentary intelligence, War Rock the traitor," observed the Jamming, cackling again. "We suppose it is unfortunate for you to come so far only to die here, bound to such an inferior member of the species."

"Wait, _die?_"

"Attack!"

The virii suddenly screeched as one leapt out before the others. Subaru yelled in shock stumbling back and tripping over his own feet.

KABLAM.

Subaru had expected pain, or something very similar. He had not expected the sound of a small explosion. He looked up to discover his arm – War Rock's arm – was outstretched, and that War Rock's head had changed slightly. War Rock's lower jaw had seemingly disconnected itself from the rest of his head, instead leaving only two sharp, floating fangs.

"On your feet, Son of Daigo!" cried War Rock, who apparently had no need of a mouth to enunciate clearly. "Falling here would do neither of us good."

Another virus leapt forward, but Subaru rolled away, curling back onto his feet. "What happened?"

"I attacked," answered War Rock simply. "The beast was no match for my power, and it exploded satisfyingly."

"Wait, satisfyingly? What part of explosions are satisfying?"

"Their entirety, unless I'm mistaken. I thought it was a common sentiment of the human male to appreciate explosions, or, at least, that was the impression I received from Daigo. DODGE!"

Subaru yelped and leapt to the side, almost failing to avoid a tongue of flame that would have engulfed his head. "War Rock, can't you shoot any more of these things?"

"As I am right now, my offenses require extensive charging times. And now that he knows I was likely taking advantage of it, our Jamming associate will not nearly be so quick to let his words run. AGAIN!"

Subaru leapt backwards, dodging the shockwave that one of the hard hat viruses – Mettorios, he remembered calling them (he had switched off the visuals to his own Wave Battle simulations for a long time) – fired at him as its pickaxe crashed into the ground. "So, what do we do?"

"I am not sure at this point," admitted War Rock. "I was hoping to take my time in picking them off. This Jamming is unlikely to allow us such a luxury."

Subaru couldn't help the groan of sheer annoyance. "You sound almost happy about that."

"I find pleasure in contests of strength. Do not judge."

Subaru was looking around as they spoke, realizing they were being cornered by the pack of virii. "Wait a second. War Rock, you fused with my Transer, correct?"

"Yes, I do remember mentioning that."

"Well, do you think I can use Battle Cards now?"

War Rock paused. "I do believe you can."

Behind War Rock, six Battle Cards shimmered into view. Delighted, Subaru picked two or three of them. "Excellent. We can make this work!" He hoped.

He inserted the cards into the strange flames connecting his him and War Rock. "Alright. Battle Card activate! Sword!"

The strange power flared brightly, and when it died down, Subaru discovered War Rock was nowhere to be found, instead leaving behind him the sword from the Battle Card, attached to Subaru's arm as though it had been grafted there. "War Rock?"

"Do not fear, Son of Daigo." said War Rock's voice, which emanated from the blade. "I am fine. It seems that the Transer is the connecting point for you, myself, and your Battle Cards. You may wield this weapon as you wish until it wears out."

"What do you mean, _wield_ it?" demanded Subaru. "I thought it was supposed to be automatic! I don't know how to fight in the first place!"

"Dodge! Dodge now!"

Too late. Subaru cried out in pain as one of the beasts, a MoeRoda (one of the monstrous, flaming unicycles), crashed into him agonizingly. Subaru crashed into the ground, though he was somewhat quicker to get off of his back than usual. And then he noticed the gaping hole in his side. He wasn't bleeding, but the idea that part of his own body had been torn away was sickening.

"Maintain yourself, Son of Daigo! You are not down, yet!"

Subaru gritted his teeth and dodged another tongue of flame, this time swinging wildly with the sword and somehow managing to hit one of the viruses – one of the Mettorios had made the mistake of jumping to close and had gotten cloven in two for its troubles.

Subaru stared at the fragments of the Mettorio disintegrating into nothingness in shock at his first success as the sword disappeared, its Battle Card having exhausted its use.

"Excellent, Son of Daigo! One has been destroyed!"

"Uh, thanks," said Subaru, weakly. "But it was, uh, accidental."

"No matter! Summon the next weapon!"

Subaru did as he was told, and in the sword's place appeared a strange, nail-tipped orb with electricity crackling about inside of it. "Plasma Gun!" The strange weapon launched a bolt of lightning from its tip, which flew in a straight line directly in between a MeraManda (one of the fire lizards) and another Mettorio.

"Son of Daigo! When using a ranged weapon, you must AIM first!"

"I know that!" cried Subaru, who whipped around and fired at a Mettorio that had leapt at him, freezing it in midair – it was destroyed when War Rock fired another blast at it.

"Very good!" cried War Rock as Subaru summoned another Battle Card; another Cannon , which destroyed another Mettorio. "Now let us continue!"

"You just really want to go buck wild, don't you?" groaned Subaru, selecting another few cards. "Air Spread!" His Transer arm changed again, into a smaller, more compact blaster, which in turn fired a small burst that proved to have a wider explosion range than Subaru and the viruses had expected, damaging three of them.

"Buck wild?" said War Rock curiously. "I do not understand."

"It means you like to fight recklessly!"

"Hmm," murmured War Rock as Subaru summoned a a Long Sword. "It is an intriguing expression, Son of Daigo... I APPROVE!"

Without warning Subaru found himself being yanked through the air as War Rock swung their shared arm wildly about, cleaving through a pair of MoeRodas. Yelping, Subaru found himself having to summon new weapons just to keep up with War Rocks new-found enthusiasm. "Cannon! Wide Sword! Heat Ball! Damnit, War Rock, hold still!"

"I am enjoying going buck wild!" announced War Rock with what Subaru could recognize as glee. "Let us go buck wild, but more so!"

"We are _most _sorry, but no. _Jamming Punch!_"

Subaru again saw the blur, again felt the crushing pain as the Jamming slammed its fist into his chest, again crumpled into a heap as he slammed into the ground, this time gasping and clutching his chest.

"Son of Daigo! You must move!"

Subaru wheezed in agony. "I can't!"

"You must!"

Subaru struggled as the Jamming advanced on him, still speaking in its low crackle. "We are coming for you, War Rock the traitor. First we will destroy your host, then we will destroy you, and then we will destroy this world!"

Subaru wheezed again, somehow managing to move his right arm. Again, a set of six Battle Cards appeared, and again, he inserted several into the back of War Rock's skull.

"You will both die, War Rock the traitor. We will tear you to shreds! _Jamming Machine Gun!_"

"Recovery 10!"

It wasn't enough to even substantially heal him, but the relief was immediate and sufficient. Subaru quickly rolled away from the volley, spinning onto his feet and dodging as the Jamming turned after him. "Recovery 10!"

"Regeneration?" asked War Rock curiously, firing off another burst from his mouth at the half-man. It impacted, though the Jamming either didn't feel pain or wasn't affected in the slightest, as it kept advancing mercilessly. "We will destroy you, _Denpa-ninken_! You only delay the inevitable."

"Yeah, it's supposed to be in case the virii manage to get at your Transer when you're playing Wave Battle. I was saving them, just in case they worked. And how does it know what _inevitable_ means?"

The Jamming was sufficiently intelligent to realize it had been insulted. And it was not happy in the slightest. "_Jamming Punch!_"

Subaru was ready this time, dodging quickly aside and swinging wide with another Battle Card. At point-blank range, the Plasma Gun hit the Jamming dead in the face, instantly freezing the creature in mid-swing and allowing Subaru to leap away.

Within only a few seconds, however, the Jamming had recovered and had decided to opt for distance tactics. "_Jamming Machine Gun!_"

Subaru leapt gracelessly away and summoned another Cannon – his last – which he fired at the Jamming.

Again, there was an audible impact, but the Jamming took no notice of the blast, again unleashing a strafe of its vulcan fire. Subaru hissed as several rounds pierced his shoulder, dodging again, though this time, he found himself out of the Jamming's sight.

"Son of Daigo, what are you doing?" demanded War Rock. "It will find us, if you hide too long."

"I know that!" whispered Subaru. "But what can we do? It's not stopping! I don't know if we're even hurting it! I never signed up for this in the first place!"

"You might wish to discuss that with our new associate," said War Rock.

"You aliens have a talent for sarcasm, you know that?" muttered Subaru. "Alright, what have we got left?"

"You, myself, and a few trading cards from what you described as a children's game."

Subaru took a deep breath. "Then I guess we'll just have to make it work."

Suddenly, he leapt out of hiding. "Oy, ugly! Come and get some!"

The Jamming wheeled around with a hiss, unleashing another strafe of fire.

"Recovery 30! Recovery 30!" Subaru felt his body heal, and the extra energy felt much better than he'd appreciated before. "Air Spread!" This time, there was a solid grunt from the impact.

"Son of Daigo, it can feel the blast! We've weakened it!"

"Wonderful," said Subaru, without conviction. "I just realized that was my _last_ shooting attack. All I've got left are some swords and an attack boost!"

The Jamming fired yet another volley at them, with Subaru somehow managing to dodge.

"Son of Daigo, I have an idea. We might succeed if we rush him."

"What? I thought getting close was a bad idea!"

"We can be much faster than it can anticipate. Do you trust me?"

Subaru tucked into a roll to dodge another series of bullets. "Do I have a choice?"

War Rock barked in laughter. "Excellent! Now then, focus on the Jamming."

Subaru did as he was told, training his eyes on the small juggernaut. Before him, he saw a small homing trace appear on the Jamming, almost as if in response to his focus, projected on the helmet's visor. "Now, Son of Daigo! Attack!"

Subaru leapt forward, and felt the world around him slow down. The Jamming drew back it's fist, and he could hear the cry, though it was as though it were in slow motion.

"Long Sword!" cried Subaru and War Rock, this time in unison. "_Plus TEN!_"

The stroke was clean. The Long Sword sliced through the Jamming's midriff like a hot knife through butter as he passed underneath the creature's punch, and then the world had returned to normal, and Subaru pivoted on his foot to see what it had done.

The Jamming was standing there steadily, as though it had never been battling at all.

"Impossible, that was a direct hit!" growled War Rock. "What devilry is this?"

"Foolish _denpa-ninken_, we are _Jamming_. _We. Feel. No. Pain._"

Subaru gulped and stepped back. And then the Jamming's eyes blinked out. Stunned, Subaru watched as the Jamming's body split in two, the upper body sliding down the diagonal cut Subaru had made with the long sword before it exploded into particles that floated up and out of sight.

And then there was silence.

Subaru looked left and right. "Is it over?"

"Yes, Son of Daigo. The battle is won. We are victorious."

"Good." Subaru swayed suddenly, his eyes drifting shut as he struggled to maintain his balance. "Damn, I'm tired. I hate fighting."

And then he fell to his knees, not noticing the world around him melting away and leaving the engine of the locomotive. His head hit the ground and he knew no more.


	2. The Black Box

It was three in the morning, and Mamoru was slumped back in his chair, totally exhausted - and his cup of coffee was almost empty. Blast. Three days' lack of sleep probably wasn't much helping the situation, either, and his recent caffeine-inspired visit to the Hoshikawa household was seeming less and less favorable a decision in hindsight. He slumped back in his chair, staring up at the large blueprint of what to the common man would have appeared to be a rocket of some sort on the wall in front of him, with melatonin creeping through him like some biological weapon, unstoppable and merciless.

"Perhaps Amachi-sama should get some sleep?"

"No can do," Mamoru murmured. "I have to finish this design. We have to start construction tomorrow."

As he couldn't bring himself to inspiration regarding the actual blueprint tacked to the wall, Mamoru turned his attention towards the perky little voice he'd heard - it certainly didn't belong to his assistant, whose voice was much softer and less clear, not to mention the fact that this little voice was much more direct with him. "Where are you? What are you doing here?"

The mystery of the voice brought some awareness back to the engineer - just enough for him to reach his coffee cup and drain its last few drops. The heat and the last of the caffeine did it - Mamoru shook and rapped the side of his head with the palm of his hand. "Now then, where are you hiding?"

"But I am not hiding. I am here. And most surprised that you can hear me."

Mamoru paused and looked over his shoulder to where he'd heard the voice. "Now, why do you say tha- oh. Oh, wow. And what the heck are you?"

Standing in the corner, well, hovering in it, was a small blue creature that seemed to be some kind of robot drone of some kind - Mamoru noticed immediately that its design was purposefully cute, almost overwhelmingly so (almost), with its perky little eyes and smile beaming joy in every direction. "I am Denpa-kun. I carry out functions. And I am most surprised that you can see me, too."

Amachi sat back down in his chair, leaning forward towards the Denpa-kun... thingie (was it just him, or could he kinda see through it?). "Oh, so you're some kind of helper, huh? Did Utagai make you?"

The little blue... /thing/ giggled, a bizarre, electronic sound that still somehow managed to be endearing. "Amachi-sama is almost correct. I am a helper, but Utagai-sama did not build me. I do not help in that way."

Mamoru raised an eyebrow. "Then what do you do then?"

"I am Denpa-kun. I carry out functions."

"...You already told me. What kind of functions?"

"Directive: High-speed information transfer between locations, specifications set to wavecast."

Mamoru paused and then something in his brain clicked. He cast a suspicious glance at the Denpa, and leaned forward. "Wait a second. You couldn't possibly... are you a _program_? Like, a computer program?"

This seemed to delight the little blue creature to no end. "Amachi-sama is correct! I am indeed a Program, though since the advent of the Wave Road system, our forms have been altered to better suit the nature of our tasks. We are... wireless."

Mamoru whistled. "Incredible... to think that I can- wait, how CAN I see you?"

The Denpa-kun allowed its smile to mellow into something more knowing. "Perhaps Amachi-sama should get some sleep. Amaken has a very powerful Radio Zone, perhaps a tad too powerful for exhausted eyes and ears."

Mamoru paused, and then grinned. "Well, I can't say you're wrong, there. Well, I'm almost done anyway, just a few more adjustments to this system, and we should be finished. Anyway, what are _you_ doing here?"

"I have a wavecast to deliver to Amachi-sama."

Amachi blinked. "Well, why haven't you done it yet?"

Now the Denpa-kun was indulging in a slight smugness. "We Denpa-kun travel as fast as the information network can stand to have us - that's near instantaneous travel to humans. The only order for this particular wavecast was that it must be delivered before Amachi-sama fell asleep - I was merely waiting to observe Amachi-sama at work."

"Uh huh? So where exactly-" _Ping!_ "Ah. Funny, you."

"I told Amachi-sama, but did he listen?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... hey, it's from Shin!"

Mamoru immediately summoned an Air Display and opened the file.

"Wavecast from the Legendary Master Shin to AMAKEN Head Amachi Mamoru successfully delivered," intoned the Denpa-kun.

"Legendary Master?" repeated Mamoru with a grin. "And Akane thinks /I'm/ the one who has a swollen head. Now, lessee..."

'Amachi Mamoru.'

'Subject: Prepare.'

Mamoru paused. Prepare? Prepare for what? Leave it to Shin to leave out the important things.

'Mamoru, I haven't got much time to write this. I'll have to go back into hiding if I want this to work, so I'll have to be brief - there's a small attachment that I figured you might find interesting. I found this last night in a little... scuffle I was caught up in. Do you think you can use it for that defense system we were discussing? Here's hoping you get it up and running soon.

Stay Legendary,  
Shin.'

Mamoru leaned back in his chair as he read the note, musing to himself. Moving past all the meaning of the note itself, what stood out to him was how incredibly succinct and businesslike this was. The Shin he remembered - the Shin he'd seen not a few days ago, for a matter of fact - was fond of striking poses and making ostentatious proclamations at the drop of a hat, often about such things as manliness and legendary awesomeness. The word "brief" appearing in a wavecast from him was almost unnerving. The fact that it delivered as promised crossed the line. Twice.

In the corner of the screen was a small blue image, a box waiting to be opened - the attachment. Mamoru tapped the little picture, and watched the animation of the lid flipping open. And then the contents exploded out of the box: streams of data flew across the screen, which promptly began to buzz and glitch, pixelating and fragmenting in places - Mamoru tried to reinforce it with a command from his Transer only to discover that the Air Display had frozen and refused to respond to him. "Small attachment, my foot," muttered Mamoru.

The strange data had finally stopped erupting from the box, though it was still certainly up to something - strange shapes and images were floating around the expanse of the screen - but as Mamoru watched, he began to pick up little hints of a pattern emerging from the random data sorting. Smaller windows of data onscreen would shift between several corners, sometimes even back and forth, and then they would dissolve into pixels and retreat behind other screens, which would follow similar routines.

Eventually, the fragmenting data revealed a large enough hole to show Mamoru what was emerging - a small, fragmented, ring-like device (the pixellated data were slowly filling in the gaps of the ring). Curious, Mamoru summoned a keyset Air Display from his Transer and typed in a few lines of text.

Nothing happened at first, but Mamoru hadn't been expecting it to. He waited for several moments, ten seconds, a minute, and then he smiled: the primary Air Display was finally reacting: it wobbled back and forth in midair for a moment, and then it twisted in on itself, forming a three-dimensional model of the so-called "small attachment". Mamoru curiously examined the ring of data (which was now revolving slowly before him); frankly, now that he saw it, it seemed more along the lines of some strange bracelet - he could easily fit his hand through it.

The last bits of data fell into place, and then Mamoru's Transer beeped cheerfully at him. Download Complete - and what a download: now competed, the bracelet had taken on a series of strange designs running along it like some archaic language. And then, with a start, he realized that the computer systems around him had all gone haywire - the screens that weren't flashing wildly were cascading ludicrous amounts of text, and the speakers were all emiting random noises and a staticky sound that reminded him so incredibly of those old sound files of white noise (which hadn't been heard live in one hundred years), except that, instead of the random noise of the sound, this sounded almost... _intentional_, like some sort of _music_.

"Have you got any clue as to what this thing is?" Mamoru asked the small creature, and then realized that the Denpa-kun was staring at the bracelet, transfixed.

"Such power," muttered the Denpa-kun dreamily, in strange tune with the bracelet's static-song. "Such incredible _power_..."

Now, Mamoru was perfectly willing to admit he hadn't known the Denpa-kun for long and was clearly out of his depth, but he was pretty dang sure that this behavior was classified as out of the ordinary. He watched the little program float closer towards the ring, and his natural instinct was to move the hologram away from it. He brushed his hand against the hologram of the bracelet to direct it away, only to discover that it was not as much of a hologram as he'd originally thought - while it still reacted to his hand like a holographic Air Display would, Mamoru found that it exhibited a touch - an actual physical presence in three-dimensional space. He could hold it in his hand - he could twirl it about his fingers (okay, maybe not - his fingers were a tad to plump for such things - and this ring was thick).

"What the hell...?" This was a holographic function - a three-dimensional _model_, and yet, he apparently had managed to somehow _materialize_ it when he activated the hologram program - and suddenly he found himself intrigued, far more than he'd just been.

What on earth had Shin sent him? Some kind of Matter Wave power source?

With a start, Mamoru noticed that the Denpa-kun had floated very, very close indeed. "Hey, hey, wake up, little buddy," he said, snapping his fingers.

The Denpa-kun blinked once or twice and shook its head. "Woo... What happened?"

Mamoru indicated the object now fastened around his wrist, but held it away from the Denpa-kun. "This thing started messing with your head. Any idea what it is?"

The Denpa-kun shook its head, still somewhat woozy. "Denpa-kun is just the messenger."

Mamoru nodded. "I see. You know, maybe you oughta head on back before anything else weird happens."

The Denpa-kun nodded. "Very well. Make sure Amachi-sama gets some sleep. It would not do to sleep through his project tomorrow."

Mamoru smiled. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Go on, get lost."

"Goodbye, Amachi-sama."

"Later, little buddy."

The little Denpa flashed and was suddenly no longer there. Mamoru waited for a few seconds, and then he walked over to a corner of the lab, where there was a large cabinet. He opened the doors and pulled out a little metal cube - a lead-steel box into which he inserted the weird bracelet, gently sliding it off of his hand. With that done, he sealed the box and locked the cabinet.

Quietly, he wandered back over to his chair and sat down, musing to himself - it had been an eventful ten minutes. His intrigue had been piqued - quickly, he pushed his chair over to the counter and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil, etching out an image of the strange little creature he had met, then stood up and adhered it to the wall. That done, he slumped back in his chair again.

Mamoru was suddenly appreciative that his eventful night had also been a tiring one - he was beginning to feel the exhaustion settle back in on him as he slumped back in his chair. Well, maybe he could close his eyes for a few minutes, that wouldn't hurt, would it? Just a few...

Mamoru was immediately asnooze - and would remain so until Utagai dashed into the office practically sobbing apologies between stuttered explanations of meeting this waitress and missing the bus. Happily, that would not be until eleven, which left Mamoru several hours of rest.

* * *

Subaru's waking thought was that he was in sharp, biting pain - his body was simply _in agony_, and his head in particular. Luckily, he was slightly cushioned by the comfort of his bed and pillow.

Wait. Bed and pillow?

Subaru bolted up into a sitting position, only to immediately regret it - while his body had been aching before, it was on fire now. Slowly, very, very slowly, he lowered himself back onto his mattress with a groan. His head throbbed for several moments, and then it faded away, allowing Subaru a sufficient portion of his brain to wonder exactly why he was in such pain.

His memory of last night was shoddy at best - he remembered a man's visit, and then his travelling up to the Observator- _the shooting star_. He remembered it now, that impact at the crest of the hill. He must have been laid flat by it, knocked out probably. It would certainly explain the pain... though not how he wound up back here. He probably would have been knocked out cold by the collision, so did somebody bring him back? He assumed it must have been so, though now that he thought about it, something was very strange about that meteor, though he couldn't figure out what. He remembered it distinctly smashing into him, though, if he figured correctly, it should have smashed in his ribs - which, if they were indeed smashed in, did not feel nearly so bad as he figured they ought to, and the pain seemed to be very, very decentralized for what it should have been; he had been walloped in the chest, not in the toes and fingers, after all.

Try as he might, Subaru couldn't remember what had happened. All he could recall was the image of that oddly placed locomotive - and now that he thought about it, he felt a strange, sudden distaste for it. Now, if only he could remember why...

"Aha. You have awakened, son of Daigo."

Subaru yelped and bolted a second time, again wincing as the pain coursed through his body, though he forced himself to bear it so he could look around. "Who's there?"

"I am."

Subaru paused - he couldn't pinpoint the voice, but something about it was annoyingly familiar - and not in the tip-of-the-tongue way. "Where are you?"

"Before you. You have been immobile for a very long time - a substantial amount more than what I have understood to be the standard human time of rest. Fifteen of your hours."

Subaru's mind was still somewhat bleary with sleep, but the voice certainly seemed to be speaking to him from in front. He craned his neck around, trying to look for a speaker or some such device, when he found a strange looking pair of what appeared to be sunglasses on top of his bedside dresser... the Visualizer! Suddenly, the memories of last night flooded into Subaru's brain, and he whipped on the glasses, returning to look before him.

Now, while he now remembered War Rock, the fierce, blazing alien was in no way less startling - Subaru yelped in shock when he discovered the beast floating before him.

"Fear not, Son of Daigo," said War Rock, whose fanged mouth had curled into something of a smirk. "I understand you may be frightened - it is after all the reaction I expected; I have been known to surpass the expectations of humans."

Subaru blinked, annoyance spurring him into default sarcasm. "Well, actually, you haven't really _surpassed_ my expectations so much as you've shoved them aside." Subaru found himself satisfied by what was undoubtedly an irked glance from the alien - he was finding himself able to pick up on slight changes in the beast's mood, not only in his - Subaru assumed it was a he, as there was really no way for him to check - expression, but in its gestures and the changes in that strange green flame.

"So," Subaru continued after a moment. "Do you have any idea as to how we got here? I don't remember walking home."

"You were carried," answered War Rock. "A man in silver clothes brought you back home, and left you on this... what do you call it, 'bed'."

"Wait - a man? Who?"

"I have no idea who he was - he did not name himself. He also wore a strange yellow accessory upon his head, not unlike your Visualizer. He left the house without being noticed by the woman below, who was exhibiting the human behavior known as 'crying', I believe," said War Rock in a very matter-of-fact way (he was suddenly finding application for a language he'd not used in a very long time and delighting in it).

Subaru regarded War Rock for a moment. "Okay, first, enough with the 'human behavior known as' business; it's just weird. Just call it crying."

"Or vomiting?"

Subaru gave War Rock a look (the alien was clearly enjoying himself). "Yes, just 'vomiting' works, too."

"Very well, Son of Daigo."

"And enough with the 'Son of Daigo' thing, too. My name is Subaru."

"Subaru... Hoshikawa Subaru."

"Yes, but just 'Subaru' will work."

"Very well, Son of Daigo."

Subaru opened his mouth, and then thought better of it. He leaned forward (now that he was up and moving around again, the weird pain was slowly ebbing away) and assumed a somewhat pensive expression. "You said he was wearing silver?"

"I believe that is the name of the color. The metallic and reflective rendition of grey, correct?"

"Yeah, that's it, alright..." said Subaru, before pausing again. "Wait a second. Have you been to Earth before?" he asked, turning to War Rock.

"No, I have never been to the planet called Earth. Indeed, I had no idea it existed until several of your years ago."

"Not 'our' years, just - nevermind," muttered Subaru. "So how did you learn English? Or is what you're saying being automatically translated into my brain?" he asked, considering possibilities.

"I downloaded the knowledge of the language from the minds of the crew of the vessel you referred to as the _Peace_."

"Download? Nevermind," said Subaru, more to himself than to War Rock. And the crew of _Peace _consisted entirely of dedicated scientists, which would probably explain why War Rock was assuming a very technical dialect. And then he realized something. "Wait a second! The crew? They survived?"

"Survived?"

"The Peace was destroyed," said Subaru. "But you learned our language from the crew. They had to survive for that, right?"

"Oh," said War Rock. "Yes, they survived."

"Well?" said Subaru impatiently. "What happened to them?"

"They are alive, Son of Daigo," said War Rock. "Or, rather, they were alive last I was aware of them."

"What do you mean, last you were aware of them?" demanded Subaru.

"I did not spend my time fleeing through Deep Heaven with the other humans in tow," said War Rock, becoming somewhat impatient. "Now, then, you have awakened, and so now we may leave."

Subaru ground to a halt. "Leave? Leave where?"

"To go out and experience your world," said War Rock simply. "I am in need of your services for this activity."

"Yeah?" said Subaru, restraining himself from adding a very tempting layer of venom to his voice. "Why's that? And why should I help you, anyway?"

"Because, Son of Daigo, I wish to see your world, and to understand it - which I cannot do on my own, and thus, I am in need of a human guide. You alone can see me, and so you are the solution to my problem."

"Again, why should I help you?"

"Because, Subaru, Son of Daigo, I am the only being on this planet who knows the fate of Hoshikawa Daigo and his crew - the only way _you_ will learn is to keep me in what you call 'high spirits'."

Subaru seethed internally - just who the Hell did this thing think he was? "And what makes you think that I give enough of a damn in the first place?"

"I am not what you would call stupid, Son of Daigo, and you are not nearly so heartless as you would have yourself believe. Did you think I wouldn't notice how you reacted to the mention of Daigo? How your eyes lit up at the mention of you father?"

Subaru glared furiously at the creature. "Now, how, exactly do you think you'll make me, again?"

War Rock was silent, for a moment, and then the tail-end of his blazing body wrapped around Subaru's Transer, and Subaru was yanked immediately out of his covers and through the air only to crash down the steps and land gracelessly in a heap at the bottom. "That is how, Son of Daigo," said War Rock to the heap. "And do not complain - if I touched your body directly, your nervous system might overload and your body would be unable to perform even the most basic functions." Beat. "Like breathing."

Subaru hissed in pain as he struggled to his feet, and he glared at the alien, or, rather the empty space above his bed (the Visualizer had fallen off and Subaru felt this would be more effective if he didn't pause to retrieve him). "And what exactly did you want to have me do?"

"I am over here," said War Rock, from the direction of the door, causing Subaru to whip his head around, though he fought a wave of embarassment to maintain his glare. "And my request for you is to show me your world."

Subaru couldn't help himself - he blinked. Twice. "You want me to _what_?"

"To show me the world you live in," repeated War Rock. "I am curious about it, and especially humans - I was told there are billions of you, and all are different."

Subaru kneeled down to retrieve the Visualizer and again donned it. It was slightly more comforting to know he could at least _see_ War Rock, even if he was powerless to stop it. "Yeah? And what do you need me for? You're not stuck here, are you? Go out and look for yourself."

"You are the one human on this planet who knows of my existence and is able to adequately interact with me. You are the most apt candidate for such a job."

"Well, you don't need the Visualizer to be _heard_, now do you?" said Subaru bitterly. "Why don't you go and make a new friend or something and leave me out of this?"

"A friend? That would serve neither of us."

Subaru barked out a cold laugh. "What, are you stuck or something? It shouldn't exactly be hard for you to go and find somebody else to annoy, would it?"

War Rock was silent for a moment or two, and suddenly Subaru realized he was hesitating.

"_Are_ you stuck?" he asked, curious despite himself.

At length, War Rock responded, and Subaru heard a definite hint of sheepishness in his speech. "I believe I invested too much of my power into the Card Force unit when we first met. So long as that Card holds my power and remains in your position, I cannot leave."

Card? What Ca- oh, wait a second. "What, that Blank Card from last night?"

"Exactly how many other Cards would be significant at the moment?"

Subaru felt the corner of his mouth twitch. "Point taken."

Subaru looked down at himself and discovered that he was still in the clothes he'd been wearing last night, but the belt-pack he kept his cards in was nowhere to be- _aha!_

Subaru walked over to his desk, just beside the stairs, and picked up the pack and flipped it open, pulling out a Card Force deck (an OLD-SCHOOL Card Force deck; he hadn't updated this thing in years - good Lord, this was a first generation _starter deck_) before shutting the lid and reattaching it to the back of his belt. He sat down and began to thumb through the cards until he found what he was looking for. "This one, right?"

"Unless you have any other cards with my image on them, then yes, yes it is."

Subaru restrained himself from rolling his eyes - so dearly did he wish to. "Very funny. Ha. Ha. And again, Ha. Tell me, are ALL you aliens this funny?"

"...That was... 'sarcasm', correct?"

Subaru looked at War Rock for a moment. "Wow. You really DO need a guide around here, huh?"

War Rock gave Subaru a very nasty look. Subaru shrugged and offered him the card. "Well, here, take it."

War Rock looked at the card in Subaru's hand. "I cannot. I am a Denpa: I have no ability to touch physical objects like you, much less carry them."

"Uh huh. Tell that to my Transer."

"That is only because your Transer exists as an anchor point both on your plane and my plane at the same time. And I invested too much power in it likewise."

Subaru paused. "Well, can you take your power back?"

"No, I cannot," said War Rock. "I believe my attempt to create a working interface between us was more than the actual system could bear."

Subaru raised an eyebrow, "And what does that mean? That you broke the card?"

There was that awkward pause again. "I do believe so."

"Not possible. These cards have been rated to store up to 100 gigajoules; there's no way _you_ could have broken it."

War Rock glared at him. "And what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Simple. All I have to do is tell it to release the rewrite, and it should be fine."

"I am refering to your statement about the impossibility of my breaking it."

"What did you think I meant by it?" said Subaru as he held out the card and summoned a blank Air Display above it.

"I believe you were making a disparaging comment about my power."

"Okay, first off, there's something we humans have called a 'rhetorical question' - its the kind of question we ask to prove a point, not to receive an answer." Subaru sat back in the chair and thought for a moment, and then tapped a few random spaces on the Air Display with his finger. There was a slight buzzing noise, but nothing happened. "The heck?" Subaru punched in a different pattern, and then another. The only thing that he earned was another few buzzes. "Well, crap. You _did_ break it. Magnificent." Subaru fell back against the chair with a groan. "Blank Cards are _expensive_, you know that? Rare, too."

"Do not complain to me," War Rock outright grumped. "I was doing you a service, remember? Now I believe you owe me a service in kind. I helped you save your home, now you must show it to me."

Subaru grimaced. "So, what, now I'm stuck with you?"

"You might always get rid of the Card. You do not seem like you would miss the company."

"You know, I _would_, except these things cost an arm and a leg for someone like me. No way am I just chucking it."

"Ah. It is good to know that this... act of 'sacrifice' on your part is dedicated to the value of the object rather than the fact that it would be an act of cruelty to leave me bound to the card and the card lost somewhere. Are all humans as generous as you?"

Subaru couldn't help but grin at the creature. "Well, that's one way to start understanding humans. You've already mastered sarcasm."

"I do not understand."

"I figured," said Subaru, getting to his feet. "Come on, let's go."

"Where are you going?"

"The faster I get out there and show you the town, the less time I have to spend listening to you. Now, do you want to see the town or not?"

"Finally," muttered War Rock, floating out after Subaru.

* * *

When Subaru had come down the stairs, he had not seen his mother. To be quite honest, her absence was no more surprising to him than her presence - she was probably off pretending to be a waitress again; woman couldn't hold down a job for more than a month. She'd been bouncing around (thankfully, it hadn't come to _that_ kind of bouncing) for, what, five years now? At least WAXA had offered them compensation for the _Peace - _goodness knows they wouldn't have been able to survive that long otherwise.

"Alright, so what do you wanna do first?" said Subaru in between bites of toast (his mom being out, Subaru ended up running a kitchen protocol for a very simple breakfast). As he spoke, a pair of young (and rather attractive, therefore viciously uninterested in him) women who were walking by at the sidewalk some fifteen feet away looked over at him and then back at each other before bursting into a fit of giggles. As Subaru knew that it wasn't because he had been apparently talking to himself (a hard to see earpiece could easily explain that away), he figured it was the Visualizer he currently wore, which looked to the world like a pair of oddly colored shades. Of course.

"I want you to look over around the corner of your building of residence."

"House," said Subaru automatically.

"What did you call me?" demanded War Rock suddenly, suddenly bearing both fangs and claws (both being made of the same... material, for lack of a better term, as War Rock, Subaru doubted he would be caused physical pain. That said, a heart attack or a short-circuiting of his brain would prove most unfortunate, so Subaru figured he might tread wisely in the future).

"What are you-?" Subaru paused before laughing outright. "Oh, no. No, this building's called a house. There's lots of them all over the place."

"Ah," said War Rock, who clearly didn't care as he reverted to his neutrality. "Well, you must look anyway."

"Just what is so important over he- _Whoa_." Subaru rounded the corner and came to a full stop. "Uh, what the heck is that thing? You didn't bring something nasty with you, did you?"

Now, Subaru was perfectly willing to admit that he was almost completely unfamiliar with the world he could see through his Visualizer, but, for all the scholastic lectures and discussions about the Supra-Global Extranet, Project: W.A.V.E.R.O.A.D. (somebody a century ago had most definitely been having fun when they came up with the name Wavelength Advanced Virtual Electromagnetic Remote Online Access Directory), Subaru could honestly say that this swirling vortex of light floating before him was the strangest thing he had ever seen. Excusing, of course, the self-important alien and the unholy creature that called itself Jamming. In plural. (What, was that supposed to mean Legion or something)?

"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me," said War Rock. "I am unfamiliar with such things."

Now, Subaru, had few things that piqued his interest - while his life was hardly as lively as certain others figured it oughta be, Subaru was not wholly listless in his day to day routine - like his father before him, he nursed an interest in science and engineering (not to mention astronomy), and this strange, swirling disc of light was fascinating.

Subaru got down on one knee to better examine it (floating though it was, it was doing so roughly at the height of his stomach), adjusting his Visualizer. He was soon validated in his wonder, for with a small _Ping!_, the left lens of the Visualizer was soon obscured by a cascading wall of code and text. "Well, whatever it is, the Visualizer sure likes it."

"There are several such phenomena located in this area," said War Rock, "such as the area where you and I met, and I sense several in the distant structure in that direction."

Subaru peeked his head out from behind his house to see where War Rock indicated. "Hmm. School. That's nice."

Subaru returned to the strange vortex before him and took off his glasses. As he expected, the vortex of light was beyond his sight - as he had most definitely not expected, War Rock was hardly as invisible.

Subaru yelped and fell back against the wall, causing War Rock to tilt his head curiously. "What is the matter?"

"I can see you!" hissed Subaru, his face pale. War Rock likewise hissed in response, dodging backwards... and again into invisibility.

Subaru blinked, and looked around. Seeing no one was present, Subaru spoke softly. "Try going near the light again," he urged. "I want to see something."

War Rock did so and swam into view, confirming Subaru's theory. "So, this thing can make you visible."

"Interesting," said War Rock. "Does that help either of us?"

"Well, it lets me know where not to take you," said Subaru with a small grin. "People would panic if they saw something as ugly as you floating around."

War Rock harrumphed at Subaru but didn't pursue the comment. "It makes a small amount of sense. The area around this object is much more potent than the rest of your world."

Subaru donned his Visualizer again, finding that the Visualizer was still displaying the column of data along the left lens. As interesting as the ability was, Subaru was finding it less than convenient. He pulled it up and rested it on the crown of his forehead before summoning another wavescreen.

"What are you doing?" said War Rock.

"I'm having my Transer talk to the Visualizer," said Subaru, as some text scrolled upwards across the screen. "I'm trying to see if there's an instructions file embedded in this thing."

War Rock flew over behind Subaru, looking over his shoulder and trying to make out the indecipherable, reverse-cascading characters (in retrospect, he figured it might have been a better idea to take the extra time to pick the humans brains for how to _read_ their language more than simply speak it). Subaru stared at the flow of text, still as a stone, except for maybe a rare twitch of his eyes.

Quickly growing bored, War Rock floated over towards the strange, colorful objects that were located in small fields around them. "Subaru, what are these?"

"Hmm? Oh, those are flowers."

"Flowers?" repeated War Rock, clearly curious. "What do they do?"

"Do?" said Subaru, pausing - he guess he'd never really thought about flowers as doers. "Well, they convert air so we can breathe it, though there aren't enough of them here to do that, so really, I guess those ones are there to look pretty. Mom keeps a whole garden of these things - she says she likes to cook with home-grown vegetables, 'cept she rarely cooks, and besides, the kitchen's entirely automatic... I think she keeps 'em really because they remind her of when Dad was around."

War Rock opened his mouth to ask more questions (he knew how to speak Human enough to communicate instant needs and perhaps a few other things, but words like 'pretty' were a whole new level of difficulty, perhaps he could someday pursue advanced schooling in Human) when he decided against it - if he were to keep Subaru in good spirits, it would perhaps be wise to refrain from bringing up memories that caused pain.

"Ah, here we go." Subaru made a motion with his middle finger, sliding it across the wavescreen in a straight line, which in turn seemed to highlight a row of text. "Visual-Sequence: Pause Function."

The Visualizer indeed reacted to the sequence, though not, perhaps, in the way Subaru was expecting. **"Voice Command: Invalid."** The text continued to cascade across the screen.

"_Invalid?_" demanded Subaru, making a series of gestures with his fingers and bringing the text to sudden life. "Bullsh-oh. Hmm. User Accounts. Naturally."

War Rock floated over. "Is progress being made?"

"Sure," said Subaru. "If by 'progress' you mean movement in the sideways direction." Muttering to himself, he sat down against the wall of the house, staring at the wavescreen floating in front of him.

War Rock looked at him for a moment, and then flinched violently without warning. Quickly, he jerked his head back over his shoulder, and then looked outwards. The surrounding area was the same as it had always been, silent and relatively peaceful. The relative peace of the surroundings, unfamiliar enough to War Rock, made that sudden sense of dread and foreboding that had hit him so unexpectedly all the more sinister.

Something, if only for a moment, had been there. Waiting, watching with an... _unsettling_ interest.

War Rock turned around to look at Subaru, who was still staring at the screen, unperturbed. War Rock hesitated, well and truly hesitated, for the second time in his life - the first being seven human years prior.

"Subaru, has there been any development?" War Rock asked.

"Quite possibly," said Subaru, sounding a tad higher in spirit than he had a few minutes ago. He sat up, made an odd face for a few seconds, and then he spoke, though what followed startled War Rock: he was suddenly hearing a voice he hadn't in many human years - Kelvin Stelar was speaking. "Visual-Sequence: New User."

**"Voice Recognition: Kelvin Stelar. Access Confirmed. New User: Enter Name."**

"Hoshikawa Subaru," said Subaru, in his own voice, though he smiled noticeably.

**"New User Confirmed. Priveleges?"**

"Level 5," answered Subaru in his father's voice. "Chief Administration capacity. Transference of Owner Status."

There was a pause for a moment, and Subaru briefly noted that it was almost as though the Visualizer were appraising its new master of trustworthiness. After a moment, it gave off a small _ping_. **"New Owner Acknowledged."**

"Cool," said Subaru, visibly pleased with himself. "Now then, Visual-Sequence: Pause Function."

The cascading block of text in the Visualizer came to a stop and hung there, as did Subaru's very satisfied grin. "Now then, Visual-Sequence: Analyze Object." He _really_ had to figure a way to shorten those commands, he didn't want to wear his cheeks out with a 'Visual-Sequence' every day, after a- no. No, no, no. This was NOT going to be an extended thing - this was only going to be small-time, temporary weirdness... that had no forseeable end in sight.

Crap. A boy and his alien and his really weird specs. Damnit, Dad, what did you get him into now?

And then, deciding it would be better for him to stop thinking such things, Subaru got to his feet as the Visualizer finished its analysis with another _ping_.

**"Analysis complete: Object is a Grade-3 Wavehole. Data Transfer Rate: Steady."**

"Wavehole?" said War Rock curiously. "This term is unfamiliar."

"Just what I was thinking," said Subaru. "The hell's a 'Wavehole'?"

**"Wavehole, noun."** Whoa. What kind of commands was this thing used to taking? **"A point of distortion in the electromagnetic field within localized fields of Project: WAVEROAD, so named by late wave-engineer Hoshikawa Daigo for, in its simulated appearance, reportedly appearing as a hole in the very fabric of space. Waveholes exhibit capacities for intense, high-speed data and energy transfer, several orders of magnitude beyond current commercial technology. Following initial discovery, wavehole phenomena were discovered to be spread sporadically across the planet with no discernable pattern, though there have been noted tendencies for waveholes to collect in places with high concentrations of wave-technology. Waveholes are known to vary in size and data capacity. Five known grades of wave-holes are currently recognized by WAXA."**

Subaru punctuated this with a small whistle (that certainly explained all that data the Visualizer had been going through). "Waveholes, huh?"

"Do we know what this is now?" asked War Rock, floating over to beside Subaru.

"Well, sort of," answered Subaru. "Whatever these waveholes are, they're certainly a big secret."

"A secret?"

"Did I not just say that, you parrot?" sighed Subaru, though his voice was less annoyed with him than War Rock expected it to be, and surprisingly, almost conspiritorial. "I think this Visualizer has access to some very high-up computers; it's certainly picking some very top-flight brains." He paused and looked at War Rock, who looked almost completely out of his depth. "I've never heard of these waveholes until you showed this one to me. These things aren't common knowledge, but the Visualizer certainly knew about it, even if it didn't know everything."

"And what are your conclusions?" asked War Rock.

"I'm not sure," said Subaru. "Do you mind if we postpone the whole meet and greet with Planet Earth for a while?"

"Intrigued, are we?" asked War Rock.

Subaru grinned at him. "Well, think of it this way. You want to find Shin, right? Well, all I know about this Shin guy is that he was involved with Dad at some point in the past, which means he's a secret of Dad's, and the more I sit here the more I'm starting to think that Dad had a whole bunch of these secrets, all in a big ol' black box (that's a figure of speech, big guy, don't make your head explode), which means that the only way we're going to get inside is if there's a secret loose and floating around outside the box; a key to a lock."

"And these... 'waveholes' are our keys?" said War Rock.

"Bingo," said Subaru. "If Shin's in the box, then we need to get in there, too."

"Magnificent," said War Rock. "...So how do we do that?"

"Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up so soon," sighed Subaru. "I'm not entirely sure on that one."

"Hmm, I have an idea that may work," said War Rock. "Or at least give us an idea as to what can be done."

"I see. Tell me, why do I have the feeling that I'm not going to like this?"

"I have no particular idea," answered War Rock, leering at him with another one of his not-quite-successful charming smiles.

Subaru groaned, knowing full well that much of his unease was stemming from War Rock's idea of an enthusiastic smile. "Alright, so what's this plan?"

War Rock looked Subaru in the eye, and suddenly he didn't need to hear the following question. "You still bear that piece of the Card Force, correct?"

"Yeah, but why-? Oh. Oh, no." Subaru shook his head warily. "Oh, no, no, no. We are **not** doing that again - I like having _two _hands, thank you very much."

"Why do you hesitate so?" laughed War Rock. "You certainly seemed to enjoy the 'rush', as you earthlings call it."

"Okay, first off, I thought we agreed enough with the 'earthling' talk. Secondly, I have really very little desire to give up my left arm to you, or any other part of my body, for that matter. We can probably figure out something to do with it another way, right? C'mon, stop looking at me like that."

"How many other ideas do _you_ have?" asked War Rock.

Subaru grimaced. "Why should I?" he demanded suddenly. "Why the hell should I be doing any of this, anyway?"

"Quite simply," said War Rock, unperturbed (he'd been waiting for the child to revert to petulance), "because you have need of me to achieve certain results - you have a deep desire to learn of what happened to your father and the band who followed him, for which you will need to use me and my knowledge. But if I am going to be used, I insist on being able to use you in turn. It would be most expedient for you to comply."

Subaru glared at him for a long moment, and then gave in. "This is the last time we do this. Ever, you hear me?"

"Very well," said War Rock, not a little smug. "This is the last time we combine solely on my terms."

Subaru hissed an angry breath through his teeth. "Fine, you bastard. Let's get this over with."

Subaru jerked his head around towards the street, ensuring that the beaulevard was clear before proceeding. Satisfied, he reached for the deck box he kept hooked to the back of his belt, unlatched it, and drew out the small deck of Cards. He shuffled through them, Cannon, Vulcan 1, Attack +10... ah.

Subaru drew from the outmoded deck a Card with War Rock's fearsome image and looked at it for a moment. The monster on the card stared fiercely up at him, fangs of blue steel and claws of green flame thrown open in menace, the War Rock on the card was a creature of rampage and combat.

With a sigh, Subaru lifted up his left arm, cancelling all Air Displays and unneccesary Transer functions with a couple motions of his fingers. And then he bit the bullet, swiping the card through the Transer's Card Force slot - there was a small crackle of electricity, and again Subaru found his mouth moving on its own.

"_Denpa-Henkan: Hoshikawa Subaru, On Air!_"

Again, there was that flood of energy and emotion, overwhelming him totally as War Rock wrapped himself around the human boy. Again, Subaru found himself clad in streamlined pieces of armor and the connective blue matrix-jumpsuit between them. Again, he found himself dealing with the (ugly) upstart head he had traded his left arm for.

"Ah," sighed War Rock's head. "Magnificent! Now, forward, Subaru!"

"Hey, wait, what are you- WAAAHH!"

Subaru's last coherent thought before War Rock dragged him into the wavehole was that he was really going to have to discuss the value of baby steps with this creature.

* * *

The sensation of the wavehole was one of a great velocity - Subaru was being pulled forward at an incredible speed, his body and mind spinning wildly as he lost track of space and time around him, and every thing that had been on his mind was stripped away to leave a feeling of sheer exhiliration. Unfortunately, the incredible feeling of the wavehole was quickly replaced with one of sincere discomfort as it spat Subaru and War Rock out, letting them crumple onto Subaru's one remaining arm.

Subaru groaned in pain, struggling to right himself. After a few seconds, he noticed something being placed almost directly in front of his face - a hand.

"Need a hand, big guy?"

Subaru looked up and discovered a tall figure before him, human in shape except for his head, which was almost egg-like. "The wavehole gave you a bit of a turn there, huh?"

A bit and then some.

Subaru blinked and accepted the hand, getting to his feet. After a moment of righting himself, he found himself able to speak words: "You're a NetNavi!"

The being before him blinked a pair of glowing lights that were his eyes, and then threw back his head, his electronic laughter most definitely not impeded by the lack of a mouth. "Of course, I'm a Net Navi! What'd you think, that you were the only one of your kind?"

Subaru blinked, horribly confused. "The only-?" It came to him in a flash - his head tore left and right, taking in his surroundings as fast as he could.

He was in the air, maybe a mile or two above where he had just been - a quick check beneath his feet revealed them to be firmly grounded (if, indeed, that could be the word) on a pixellating ribbon that arced through the air with no definite end in sight in either direction, flying high above the world with dozens, if not hundreds of others like it, each sporadically branching to the next and back again. About him, Subaru could see little ripples of light dancing about through the air, and suddenly he came to the realization: "I'm _on_ the Wave Road?"

The NetNavi besides him unleashed another peal of laughter. "My goodness, aren't you off-the-shelf? Yes, sir, this is the Wave World - where the World Wide Web has physical form (well, sort of). You are indeed standing on the Wave Road."

Subaru chuckled sheepishly - if this meant what he thought it did, goodness knows he might be in for a fair bit more teasing.

"Well," said the orange NetNavi, gaining some control over himself. "I guess that's enough of that. So, tell me, big guy, what are you doing around here? ...Did your factory give you a faulty drive?"

"Faulty?" echoed Subaru, not liking the tone of that word one bit.

"Yeah, faulty. A NetNavi that doesn't know when he's standing on the Wave Road must have a _little _something wrong with him." Subaru eyed the NetNavi's left arm as the latter spoke - the fingers of its left hand had curled slightly and had begun to crackle with power.

"Who says we have anything wrong with us?" demanded War Rock suddenly, startling Subaru violently as he suddenly spoke up.

"Whoa," said the NetNavi, visibly surprised. "So you have _two_ heads? Impressive." And then, "Oh, I get it! Your Beast-Head must have all the information in it - that's a pretty cool design. My mistake." Again, he began to laugh, and Subaru relaxed when the NetNavi's hand stopped crackling.

"So, tell me, big guy," said the NetNavi. "What are you doing way up here? You have a job to do? Oh, and while were at it, I don't think I got a name."

Subaru looked at War Rock on his left arm for a moment. "Uh... I, er... Well, I guess you could call me RockMan," he said sheepishly, hoping and praying that the NetNavi didn't pry any farther - he wasn't entirely sure Rogue-NetNavi status would get him very far up here.

"RockMan, huh?" said the NetNavi, pausing for a second. "How strange, that sounds vaguely familiar... Ah, nevermind. Okay, RockMan, so what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"I'm, uh..." Damnit, why'd his brain have to go blank at a time like this! This wasn't going to-

"Suba- RockMan, dodge!" cried War Rock suddenly.

Subaru blinked and looked at War Rock. "What?"

Too late. Something surged into Subaru's gut, knocking him over. In addition to being very fast, the newcomer also proved to be rather loud.

"Run! Run, it's coming!"

"What?" asked Subaru.

With a sudden shock, Subaru felt the NetNavi they had met seize him by the arm. "On your feet, RockMan! We must fly! It's coming!"

"What- where are we going? What's coming?" demanded Subaru as he jumped to his feet.

"He's here," growled War Rock, a deep, rumbling breath that promised danger and that Subaru was sure would have made him ruin his pants if he was still human (whatever he was now certainly wasn't).

"RockMan!" insisted the NetNavi, tugging on his arm. "Come on! We need to get out of here!"

Subaru turned to the NetNavi and found himself sliding effortlessly along the Wave Road, past the small vortex that dipped down from the ribbon of light - the wavehole! - and further away from whatever was coming. He looked back and suddenly wished he hadn't - he could see what was coming.

Something massive was surging toward them, wreathed in what looked to be a massive ball of flames and trailing them along the Wave Road behind it (Subaru couldn't help himself but pause to wonder how on earth the Wave Road was _burning_ - and then he realized that whatever was making it burn was probably not something to be reckoned with).

"What IS that thing?" cried Subaru, freeing himself from the NetNavi and moving to run along behind it - to his surprise discovering he didn't need to run so much as just will motion in the same direction to glide quickly and effortlessly along the ribbon of light.

"Taurus," answered War Rock darkly. "The general of King Cepheus' chief invasion force."

"General?" echoed Subaru in horror. "What's he doing here?"

"Well," said War Rock in self-indulgent sarcasm. "As the general of the chief invasion force, my guess is that he would be invading." WHAM. "OUCH! What was that for?"

"For being such a smartass," answered Subaru, knowing full-well the hypocrisy (this was not the time for it) shaking his hand to relieve it from the pain of smacking War Rock's head with his fist. "So why's he invading here?"

"He followed me," answered War Rock simply. "The hunting beasts that were hounding me were from his detachment."

"Yeah, but if he was following you, then why is he only attacking now? Wouldn't it have been wiser to do it earlier... oh, shit, was he _waiting_ for us?"

War Rock was suddenly silent, but his eyes widened considerably. "That may be a possibility. I do not think he could see us exactly as much as he sensed my presence in the local area."

"I sense a dangling 'but'," said Subaru, trying to keep the panic out of his voice when he noticed the mass of flame was getting closer - a mighty effort indeed when he heard a resonant war bellow issue forth.

"Something has changed about him," said War Rock. "This is not the same Taurus I spent an age fleeing from."

"Does that make it better for him or for us?"

"Him. Definitely him."

"So, what do we do?" cried Subaru.

War Rock was silent for a moment. "We must engage him."

"Engage? Like, _fight_?"

"I mean exactly that," said War Rock, unabashed. "Taurus is chasing us, doing incredible damage to everything around him, and he will continue to do so tirelessly in pursuit of us until either satiated or thwarted."

"But he's supposed to be some kind of big shot, isn't he? Didn't you spend all those years running away from him? That sounds a lot like you were scared of him."

War Rock growled. "I was not _scared _of him!" he roared. "I was merely... out of my depth."

"Much better," groaned Subaru. "So what makes you so sure that we have such a great shot at winning against him now?"

War Rock grinned. "Taurus and I both hail from the Planet FM. As the King's general, Taurus boasted of the king's reinforcement to his own immediate power. However, we are no longer on Planet FM - we are on Earth, which means Taurus no longer has a - what do you call it - a 'home-field advantage'."

Subaru wasn't convinced. "But he became a general before he got that boost, though, right? That makes it sound like he didn't need it to start."

"Only for the value of his tenacity," scoffed War Rock. "The only quality he brings to a fight is simple brute force. He was not elected to the position for value of his tactics. If you can outthink him, you should be able to outfight him."

Subaru glared at him. "Yeah? And why couldn't you do this yourself?"

"I was a weak and injured fugitive seeking haven and survival, then. I am no longer such. We can fight him, Subaru. Indeed, we must!"

"'Must'? Why 'must'?"

"Because he will raze everything into nonexistence until he gets what he wants, and I highly doubt you would be able to live with yourself for being responsible. You are Daigo's child, unless I am mistaken."

Subaru spluttered for a moment, and then, slowly, fell silent. "Fine, you win. We fight."

War Rock chose to refrain from gloating, only smiling. "You are indeed Daigo's son," he said. "He would be proud of y-"

"Shut up about my dad, you self-righteous bastard," said Subaru. "I'm not doing this because you said so, I'm doing so because there's nothing else I can do." He slowed to a stop, causing the NetNavi who had found him to whip his head around.

"RockMan, what are you doing?" cried the Navi that they had met, likewise pausing. "You'll be destroyed!"

Subaru looked over and offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile and a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about me. You get out of here."

"But-!"

"Go, damnit!" shouted Subaru. "It's no good if you stick around when I'm trying to buy you time!"

He turned back to the approaching flame, feeling the surging flame approaching more than he saw it.

And then it began, with the flames erupting away in a huge explosion, unleashing a massive beast into the air, which landed only inches for Subaru's face (he was very glad for no longer needing to wet himself - this would not have ended well in normal circumstances).

The creature that emerged from the flames looked at Subaru for a long moment, and then reared back onto two, thick legs and let loose a great bellow of laughter.

"And who are you?" demanded the great creature as his laughter died. "You dare stand before the presence of the mighty Taurus Fire? You have quite the formidable intestinal fortitude... if not the stature to do it justice."

The mighty Taurus Fire was quite the presence to stand before, Subaru had to admit. From what he could see, Taurus Fire looked like some kind of... minotaur, now that he thought about it - some kind of massive humanized bull coated in plates of crimson armor, who stood over 10 feet tall, and was easily 5 times as wide as his opponent - hell, Subaru was roughly as big as his forearm, the elbow of which seemed to be some kind of chamber from which streams of flames spewed, much like Taurus Fire's back. Wicked, sharp horns curved outwards from the sides of his head, shining in the flames, and spikes burst from his knee ready to impale whatever Taurus so much as looked at. Subaru had to admit that War Rock was right - this Taurus Fire was terrifying.

That said, Subaru had already made his decision to stand here and see what could be done about him. And to that end, showing fear wasn't going to earn him much ground. And Subaru knew he had at least one talent, if nothing else - masking himself. "Yeah, okay. You're about as good at Earth dialogue as he is," said Subaru, pointing at War Rock's head with his free hand. "Which is crappy."

Taurus Fire snorted loudly and derisively, with flames sprouting from the nozzle of his muzzle. "I see that this is not fullhearted valor exhibited before me, but foolish vanity. Tell me, has War Rock convinced you that you stand a chance against me?"

Subaru cast a slight glance at War Rock. "Yeah, maybe he has."

Taurus Fire bellowed in laughter again, his whole body shaking with each sounding. "Then you are indeed both foolish and vain!

"Behold, Taurus Fire!" roared the minotaur. "Chief General of High King Cepheus' royal army! All who have stood before me have fallen amidst the flames! And my new power has made my might multiply even further - I am unmatcheable!"

Subaru let out a mocking breath of air, waving a hand in front of his nose as if to ward off some great stench. "I'll say. Are you sure that you won all those fights because of actual power or simply because all your opponents found you so unbearable they couldn't keep upright?"

War Rock burst out laughing from Subaru's left arm as Taurus Fire registered a double take. "He's got you down, Taurus!"

Taurus Fire seethed, flames sprouting suddenly from his elbows and nozzle. "How dare you mock me, child? Do you not know Death when it stares you in the face?"

"No," admitted Subaru, "but God knows I'm not looking at Death so much as I'm looking as a Fat Bag of Hot Air."

War Rock laughed again. "You haven't gotten any smarter in all this time, Taurus. Give it up."

Taurus whipped his head around to face War Rock (Subaru noted with a sinking feeling how easily his horns sliced through the air). "You dare mock me, War Rock? You are bold indeed, boasting so mere a host."

"Host?" repeated Subaru.

"Ah," said War Rock. "I thought so. Taurus Fire is your Denpan-Henkan, isn't it, Taurus?"

"Wait, this isn't Taurus?"

"No, it's Taurus, alright, but with backup. He couldn't count on his own power to do much, so he's leeching off of someone else. In his real form, he's not much different than I am; bit more pigheaded than I am, though."

"Is that even possible?" wondered Subaru aloud, perhaps a little grateful for the banter with War Rock.

"How dare you?" cried Taurus. "I am no pig!"

A quick assessment of the situation told Subaru that whatever restraints Taurus Who Was Not A Pig was employing were rapidly snapping.

No Return was a Point he'd crossed long ago.

"Wow," said Subaru, unimpressed and sounding much, much braver than he felt. "Big _and_ stupid. You know, it doesn't help when they try to break down stereotypes and then people like you come along reinforcing them."

He felt War Rock move his head to get a better look at him. "Subaru, are you entirely sure you know what your doing?"

"Of course," Subaru said (his voice squeaking a little) as Taurus Fire bellowed in rage again. "I'm picking a fight with an intergalactic warlord."

"Just making sure," said War Rock. "Are you ready?"

Subaru looked down as six floating cards shimmered into view out of War Rock's flames. "Well, no, but I can't do much about it now, can I?"

Taurus Fire simmered down just enough to regain awareness of his surroundings. "I will give you one chance, impudent creature. Relinquish the Andromeda Key to me and I might let you die quietly. Withhold it, and you will die screaming. The Key can withstand my power. You cannot."

"Key?" echoed Subaru, turning to War Rock. "What Key?"

War Rock cackled again. "When I left Cepheus' employ I took a few liberties with the royal vault."

"Wait, you stole from them?"

"Yep," laughed War Rock, wholly unperturbed. "I only wish I could have seen their faces when they realized I had escaped not only with my life but with their treasure."

"And you didn't tell me about this, _why_?"

"You have your secrets, I have mine." Subar couldn't argue with that. It was a little late to whine about alien repo men, after all.

"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt," said Taurus Fire, clearly put out about again being relegated to the sidelines of the conversation. "But I can only assume that you have no intention of returning the Key to me."

"Caught up, have you?" said Subaru. "I think he's learning," he added as an aside to War Rock.

War Rock cackled. "He is indeed. We make good teachers."

"Fine," said Taurus Fire, dissonantly calm. "Die. Fire Breath!"

War Rock yelped and tore to the side, yanking painfully on Subaru's arm as he was dragged to the side. He suppressed his natural instinct to complain, as he was very much aware a pained arm was a small price to pay for the fact that his head was no longer where it was several seconds ago, and thus, not engulfed by the torrid stream of flame that had erupted from Taurus Fire's nozzle.

Subaru groaned and jumped to his feet as Taurus Fire rounded on him, swinging his fist wide. "Anger Punch!"

Leaping out of the way, Subaru laughed. "Anger Punch? _Fire Breath_? Who named your attacks, an infant? A stupid infant?" he asked, picking three cards (blasted Wave Battle rules - the cards would default into being non-selectable if he grabbed more than two of the same kind - he needed way more white cards). "Cannon!"

Taurus Fire bellowed in range as the blast hit him point blank. "Impudent creature! You will burn in flames!"

"Cannon!"

The second blast smashed into Taurus Fire's left horn, though, aside from a small burst of digital smoke that wreathed the length of steel ivory, the horn remained otherwise unharmed. "Did you honestly think that would work? The great Ox Horns are invincible to attack!"

"Wait, Ox Horns?" said Subaru. "But you're name is Taurus, right? Doesn't that make you a bull?"

Taurus leapt at Subaru, massive, human body-sized arms bearing down on him, except the arms never crashed down with the crushing finality they had intended, as Subaru had unloaded a Plasma Gun into Taurus Fire's chest, paralyzing him.

"Ox? Bull?" asked War Rock as Subaru dashed away to select more cards. "I do not understand."

"I'm pretty sure they do," said Subaru with a particularly vicious grin.

Indeed they did, for as Taurus Fire was released from the hold of the Plasma, he let loose a massive bellow and lowered his upper body almost parallel to the floor, and Subaru suddenly found himself not liking the angle of the Ox Horns. "Ox Tackle!"

Taurus Fire's didn't so much charge as rocket forward, Subaru's third Cannon blast not so much as catching the beast's attention as he slammed headfirst into Subaru's gut and continued forward, one of his horns goring Subaru's stomach.

Subaru was caught on Taurus Fire like a ragdoll, his head swimming in pain as War Rock yelled unintelligibly at him. After a moment, Taurus perhaps had noticed him, rearing back and flinging him away through the air to land in a heap.

"Subaru! Subaru!" shouted War Rock. "Can you hear me?"

Subaru winced - yes, yes he could. "New Draw," he groaned, the shimmering cards taking what seemed to be an exceedingly long time to appear. And then he screamed as Taurus Fire caught him in a spray of his Fire Breath.

"Subaru!" cried War Rock. "You must get up! You will _die_ if you stay here!"

Subaru hissed at the voice in his ears, ringing in his brain.

"Your poor host perhaps regrets his course of action at this point," guffawed Taurus Fire. "Shame that he will die nonetheless, and his poor mother and father will never see him again."

Taurus Fire ceased bellowing in mirth to find Subaru had gotten to his knees and was leveling War Rock's head armament at him, a look of something darker in the human's eyes. "Rockbuster!"

Subaru hadn't been expecting the blast to do much more than the Cannons, and indeed, Taurus cast it aside with a flick of his hand. What Subaru had expected to do was to get Taurus to start talking again, and the minotaur obliged him beautifully.

"Give it up!" demanded Taurus, not quite noticing that Subaru was pulling a few more cards from where they floated in the air behind War Rock and running them through the flames. "You're efforts are futile; you will die and I will collect the Key. And then I will deliver it to my King when he arrives."

"When he arrives?" demanded Subaru, coughing and hacking (was that _blood?_) as he squeezed out the words. "What the hell does that mean?" As if he didn't know.

"His Majesty King Cepheus has launched a campaign against the planet Earth in retaliation for war crimes commited by its people against His person. Earth will become an outpost of FM, its people devoted to the service of His Majesty."

"So, you're invading?" asked Subaru. "Just you?"

Taurus grunted, perhaps a little displeased on the subject for a moment before defaulting to normalcy. "Others will come. I simply got here first... and I plan on enjoying it. And I will start by consuming you in flame!"

"Huh," grunted Subaru. "Shame, that. Plasma Gun!"

Taurus Fire moved to flick the blast aside again only to be stunned by the secondary effect of the plasma. Subaru took quick advantage of the situation: "Recovery 30!"

While the boost did not bring him back to full power, its relief was incredible, the pain immediately washing away to leave a feeling of mere exhaustion. Subaru was back on his feet.

"War Rock?" he said. "Change of plan - we aren't winning this fight."

"Duly noted."

"My vote is we get out of here."

War Rock was silent for a moment. "To what end?"

"Oh, partially to survive, but mainly so Taurus is denied his prize," Subaru said nonchalantly.

War Rock grinned. "It won't be easy."

"That's half of the fun," grunted Subaru. "If we can't win ourselves, we can deny him the pleasure. Plasma Gun!" Taurus shrieked in muffled rage as he again fell victim to the jolt.

"We'd need to get to the wavehole, though," noted War Rock. "That means going through Taurus Fire."

"Nope," said Subaru. "It means getting past him."

War Rock looked up at him. "You have a plan?"

"Maybe. Depends on the circumstances," Subaru said, drawing a few more cards. "For all I know, we could end up dead."

Taurus Fire bellowed, announcing his release from the Plasma Gun strike.

"And you are okay with that?"

"I haven't got much choice, now do I?" said Subaru. "Now, let's go. Sword!"

With a flick of his left hand, War Rock's head was wrapped in light which then fell away to reveal a blade as long as Subaru's full arm. "Now, let's see how the dice rolls."

Subaru got low into a crouch, focusing on the great bulk of Taurus Fire. Again, the little cross-hair appeared before him in the Visualize-Visor's lens.

Taurus Fire perhaps had decided to end the battle now himself, charging forward and pulling back one of his great arms. "Anger Punch!"

"Oh, shut up, you overacting HAM!" yelled Subaru in annoyance, sprinting forward underneath the stream, which flickered and died in the moments following his insult.

"I am no PIG-" Taurus found his voice die in his throat as he came to a stop, Subaru stepping easily across Taurus' outstretched arms and vaulting forward through the air.

Subaru had aimed perfectly, landing squarely in the vortex of light and disappearing in a flash, listening to the fading echo of Taurus Fire's bellow of hatred.

...Taurus had been denied his second victory at War Rock's hands, the Andromeda Key having slipped from his grasp. He could not pursue War Rock and his host down the far-too-small Wavehole after the fugitive and his host, which meant that the battle was lost.

"So be it, War Rock," Taurus Fire said slowly. "Hide all you want, but I will make this world burn. The people will scream, driven into the depths of their world, and I will ensure that you are forever haunted by the holocaust for which you are responsible. Again."

Taurus Fire turned away from the Wave Hole and wrapped himself in flames again, surging down the waveroad in the direction he had come, purposefully ignoring the nick in his left horn War Rock's host had scored during his exit.

* * *

Annnddd... another Chapter completed (finally - this might take a while to write). This happens to be both a very long and a very short chapter: I'm pretty sure the actual length of the chapter exceeds the last one, but the actual events of the chapter take roughly half an hour and an hour, respectively.

Okay, you may note a few things about this story that are different from strict canon - first off, Air Display/wavescreens don't show up until the second game, which I find odd because they also happen to show up in the later seasons of the EXE anime, generated by the PET (what, did they just disappear for two hundred years?). And there's another problem I have with the Star Force series - for all the talk of being 200 years in the future, I can just as easily imagine the games taking place only 50 years in the future: I mean, I just can't feel enough of a difference from the original series to justify 200 years; and the spinning Moai heads aren't helping much.

Anyhoo, I still like the series (you'll notice this isn't much of a trollfic, after all), except for a few points. First, Subaru in the games is too much of a violence-hating wimp in the games, to the point of unbelievability; after all, at the end of the first game, he's taken down a world-destroying abomination, forged an informal interplanetary/intergalactic peace treaty, saved the world, and at the beginning of the second he can't muster up the will to take on a few groups of Mettorio (I can understand not liking fighting, but, come on, it's a little late to have second thoughts after you start charging into battle) - and that's just the tutorial (which they blessedly let you skip over in the 2nd game, for the first and last time in the whole timeline). Secondly, War Rock has too much of a roughneck accent in-game from the moment of his first appearance; now, I don't mind the idea of him adapting one from the time he spends on earth, but he has one from the start, after only knowing humans for a few months, so... yeah (I'm working on it, War Rock'll start going Buck Wild more as the story goes on, I promise). Third, the technology jumps around too much; now, I can imagine why, since the first game was largely, "Hey, look! It's a sequel to Battle Network!", and the second and third games were attempts to fix that, with varying success. (And yes, Cards in this universe are capitalized. Battle Cards, Card Force, yeah, I know, it's weird).

Anyhoo, notes about this chapter: so, you all have pretty much noticed that Taurus goes and jumps the gun a little early. And he's a large chunk of grade-A, prime-cut, overacting ham (I'm sorry, I couldn't help it - I wanted to keep Taurus blowing his stack about being accused of being a pig without Gonta worrying about the _ghost of his tonkatsu_ coming to haunt him). And yes, I know his name is Ox in the original japanese, I kept him as Taurus since, A) it matches the theme naming of the FM-ians (if your crew is Gemini, Ophiuchus, and Cygnus, Taurus and Lyra fit a lot better than _**OX**_ and _**HARP**_), and B) I think he enjoys be considered as having some balls (for those of you who don't know - oxen are the eunuchs of the bovine world). Also, side note: the ten-foot figure isn't off: according to the 3rd game's website, Taurus Fire is 310 cm tall, which has him standing 10'4" off the ground. (And no, I don't plan on having much more fun with the attack names).

Also, you've perhaps noticed that the technology borrows from the second game, at least with the Air Displays (or the wavescreens - personally, I think Air Display is a brand name, which is why I've got 'em called wavescreens); another side note: I'm sorry this is taking so long without going anywhere - I'm just taking some time to establish a few things about the story and it's taking a while. And I've been meaning to write some Matter/Real Waves in (I'm sorry, Real Waves kick ass) - maybe, hmm... I think I have an idea.

Oh, another note: I just realized this - last chapter I made a small point about Subaru getting a little taller when he turns into Rockman; that was a mistake - technically, Subaru should be the same height as Rockman; he doesn't technically get taller until Black and Red and he gets the Hunter-VG terminal (they don't mention it outright in the game, but on the website, they reveal the Hunter-VG was developed specifically to enhance Wave Changing). But, what the heck, it's a minor point.

And yes, the human characters have potty mouths; it's intentional with Subaru, who has A) no dad to teach him better, and B) his mother's in worse shape than he is. And everybody else is bitter, so yeah.

Anyhow, chapter 3 is now in progress, though no promises on when it'll be finished (hopefully it'll be quicker than it took to get this one out - the whole plot has been roughly written out, but it needs some tweaking). I'll see what I can do about shorter chapters.


	3. Kizuna

"_Ooh!_ When I get my hands on him, he's _dead!_" Shirogane Luna ground her heel into the pavement in clear irritation (sufficient to ignore the utter ruin she was inflicting on her favorite pair of shoes) as she and Kizamaro stopped at the corner, waiting for the signal to change.

It was a bright and shining Saturday morning in October, ten o'clock, to be specific, and Shirogane Luna was _not_ happy. She had _plans_ to follow today, a _schedule_ to keep to, and the many items on her to-do list did **not** happen to include recovering one Ushijima Gonta. She set out immediately as the light changed, with Kizamaro scurrying gracelessly along behind her, doing his best to remain in her rapidly diminishing good graces.

"Where on Earth _is_ he?" hissed Luna as she stormed down the sidewalk, having turned abruptly right as she left the asphalt.

Kizamaro nodded his head sycophantically. Leave it to the dumb muscle to ruin Iinchou's well-planned day. The schedule had explicitly called for them both to meet her at the northwest entrance of Kodama Park at 7:00 A.M., and not only had Ushijima failed to appear on time, he had failed to appear at all - after a whole _hour_ of waiting, with Iinchou growing exponentially more and more agitated as the time went on, she had decided that if he wasn't going to grace them with his presence, they would go out and grace him with theirs.

...Except Ushijima hadn't been at home, either. His mother (who looked - and sounded - as though she might have been suffering from a terrific – ahem – hangover) had remarked offhandedly that she hadn't seen the kid at all; he "sure as Hell" wasn't in his room. Iinchou then thanked her and left, trying very hard not to wrinkle her nose at the stench of cheap alcohol as she walked away. (Kizamaro wasn't entirely sure, but Luna's expression, while still irked, had lessened in severity a little as they left the house).

And thus, Luna and Kizamaro found themselves on the hunt for their missing associate, and Luna was taking no chances - starting in the northwest corner of town and working their way south and east, she had ensured that they left no stone unturned in their search; Luna even going so far as to ask every person they met whether they'd seen a sort of large boy with a simple expression. Kizamaro refused to say anything in fear of upsetting her more, though he couldn't help but wonder if Iinchou would have become this agitated if _he'd_ been missing instead of Ushijima. In spite of all her praise of him yesterday afternoon, he couldn't keep down the envious curiosity.

As they walked, Luna couldn't help but flick her eyes anxiously to the side every now and again, expecting to see Gonta appear at a street corner or from behind a tree. He was never there (which was probably a good thing, because if he _were_, he would not live long to brag about it), and she knew it, but she still couldn't stop herself.

Even as it turned to noon, their search continued to prove fruitless - even stopping back at his house another time to see if he'd shown up (Luna had decided against doing so a third time, judging that Gonta's mother, draped across the counter and muttering obscenities in a slurred voice, was not of the disposition to care - let alone know - much about what her AWOL offspring was up to at the moment). By the time they had made it to the park, Luna was growing weary of the hunt, and decided to rest at the first bench they'd found.

"He'd better have a darn good excuse," she growled. "I've already had to reschedule that tutoring session with Hazami-san."

"Hazami?" said Kizamaro, dumbstruck. "As in Hazami _Chiyokichi?_ That snot-nosed little brat?"

"Don't act like that, Kizamaro-san," snapped Luna. "Poor boy's got enough problems." And then, "Alright, that's enough. We need to find Gonta-san."

Kizamaro did as told, settling for a sullen gaze at the ground. He knew well enough what ailed Hazami Chiyokichi: a lack of any common decency. He remembered particularly well the day when Hazami outright _attacked_ him (Kizamaro being his sempai and superior by virtue of three years, an effect unfortunately mollified by the superiority of only three inches) after Kizamaro had reprimanded him for being so uncouth and poor at his studies. Kizamaro had gained a few scars from the encounter: a great number of bruises (he was not the brawler Iinchou valued in Ushijima), his meticulously organized paperwork scattered, and his glasses... well, he'd needed to find a new favorite pair of glasses after what Hazami had done to the originals. Even then, Iinchou hadn't seemed to much care about his wounds, instead offering to help Hazami with his studies (well, he had to admit upon reflection, maybe Kizamaro hadn't gleaned much outright sympathy from Iinchou, but she had protected him from further injury).

"Hey, Kizamaro-kun?"

"Yes, Iinchou?" Kizamaro snapped his head up to find Luna was looking over into the distance.

"Wasn't that building empty last night?"

Kizamaro followed Iinchou's gaze, over to where a shabby-looking, if relatively largish building had stood vacant for many years - except it no longer was empty, or at the very least, it no longer was so solitary. A number of large crates had been left there overnight for, according to the stamps, The _Big Wave_ (Kizamaro didn't know that was what it read until Iinchou read it aloud; he'd never had her talent for foreign language, and NAS was _hard_).

"How strange," noted Luna, observing the plain Neo-Anglo-Saxon text. "Is this for a foreigner?"

"Maybe," answered Kizamaro noncommittally. "But why would he want to move in here? Isn't this building cursed?"

Luna gave him a displeased look. "Kizamaro-kun, you should know better than to buy into that nonsense. Maybe he figures he could spruce it up a little. _Big Wave_ sounds like a store of some kind, so maybe he's out here for a business venture.

"Come on, Kizamaro-kun," she continued, evidently disinterested in pursuing further conversation over the immigrant store-owner.

She stepped away from the crates, and then suddenly paused for a moment, surprising Kizamaro when he walked into her and earned himself a reprimand for being clumsy. "Did you hear that, Kizamaro-kun?"

Kizamaro blinked and listened. "No, nothing."

Luna wasn't perturbed in the slightest, immediately stepping around the back of the building. Kizamaro slunk after her, this time dodging aptly when she came to another sudden halt. Her mouth dropped open (only slightly more quickly than her composure), and she gulped in several mouthfuls of air like a fish, trying to register the scene before her.

Kizamaro peered around Iinchou's waist (he was standing at full height) to find what exactly Luna was raging at, and found his guess to be spot on. Sitting there, in the shadow of the Big Wave, was none other than Ushijima Gonta (who they'd spent _two hours_ searching for all across town), the most sublimely in-cognizant expression painted across his round face as he sat there in his pajamas, perched atop an empty wooden crate in the shadows and staring into space. Kizamaro, instead of finding himself annoyed, rather found himself feeling rather disconcerted, for this was not a peaceful expression of bliss spread across the young man's face, but a look completely lacking focus or direction; outright vegetative, in fact.

Luna, however, was not particularly concerned with such things. "YOU!" she shrieked, storming over to him. "Have you been here THIS WHOLE TIME! Darn it, listen when I'm speaking to you!"

She came to a sudden, militaristic halt directly in front of him, and powerfully snapped her fingers in his face. Kizamaro actually winced a little at how loud it cracked in the otherwise still day.

Ushijima, on the other hand, didn't blink in response. Indeed, he cried out and flinched so violently it was almost as though he were dodging some fatal attack - he actually fell off of the crate. Like some wild animal caught off guard, the boy leapt surprisingly quickly to his feet (Ushijima Gonta, contrary to what his girth and love of food might suggest, was almost entirely muscle - he was one of the top ten athletes across the whole school, which boasted the whole range from kindergarten to third-year high school), his eyes wild and darting around as he struggled to grasp and hold his senses together. "Huh! Wh-what happened? ...I-Iinchou? Where... Where am I - AND WHAT AM I DOING IN MY PAJAMAS!"

Unfortunately, the poor boy could apparently make neither heads nor tails of his situation, and Luna found herself stepping in out of some weak sensation of pity in the corner of her heart. A very, very far corner. "Gonta-san!" she said sharply, snapping her fingers again in the teen's face. "Pull yourself together!"

Gonta almost immediately stopped his panicked blubbering at her order, nodding as he straightened himself, struggling to maintain what dignity he could in his beclothes. Kizamaro, whose face hovered in the corner of Gonta's downcast view, allowed himself a clearly superior smirk, a quiet laughing at Gonta's misfortune. The small one could just imagine the scene - Ushijima the Somnambulist, chasing after the Great Tonkatsu in his dreams and then settling down for a brief spell of Zen.

"So, Gonta-san," said Luna, arching an eyebrow, though keeping the harshness of her tone in check. "I don't suppose you could tell us what happened, could you?"

Gonta's face burned red, almost as bright a shade as his bedclothes, which happened to be marked with patterned Mettorio figures in a variety of cute poses (the Wave Battle corporation was no slouch at marketing and sales). Not in part because he had no idea himself. "I- I don't remember... I- I was going to..."

Gonta paused, the rusty, underused clockwork of his brain creaking. He remembered something... A blaze of fire, a bellowing laugh, a sudden rush, and then darkness.

"Yes?" Luna said, startling Gonta. "You were going to... what?"

Before her unwavering gaze, Gonta shifted uncomfortably. (Strange, Luna thought, it didn't seem to her to be _that_ cold, and those pajamas looked to be a fair bit warmer than her own uniform). "I was go- going to... bed."

"Obviously," answered Luna curtly (Kizamaro snickered). "However, you seem to have taken quite the curious detour."

Gonta's eyes fell again, unable to meet Iinchou's. It was a mystery to him, too, though his mind's eye was filled with a great flame - one that burned him as he thought of it. The image of fire remained, silent but present in the back of his mind as he tried to respond to Iinchou. "I- I don't know what happened. I- I'm just... here. The last thing I did last night was go to bed." A lie. A plain and simple lie. Gonta didn't know _what_ had happened last night - he'd made dinner, pulled a blanket over his mother sprawled and snoring across the beaten up sofa (with another empty can slipping free of her limp hand), gone upstairs to his room and gotten his pajamas on while stewing about that brat Hoshikawa, and then - _Fire_. Then he was here. Bed was most assuredly not on the list, but, Hell, "Fire" wasn't likely to answer Iinchou's questions any better than "Bed" would.

"Uh huh," answered Iinchou. "So, you went to bed, and then woke up here?"

"Uh... y-yeah," answered Gonta weakly.

"And your room is on the _second_ floor, correct?"

"Yeah..." answered Gonta, not looking up.

"So you somehow managed to sleepwalk _through_ a hallway, _down_ a flight of stairs, through what I assume was a _locked_ door, around town (going _out of your way_ to take one of the bridges over the river in the center of town, obviously), and **climb up onto this box** in one night, hmm? That's quite the specific dream." (Kizamaro had to admit, for the increasingly ire-filled look Iinchou was sporting, she was keeping her voice remarkably low-key).

Gonta stiffened, his shame-filled eyes anchored to the ground. Any second, now, he would hear it. The explosion. The lecture. The reprimand. The scorn. She wouldn't possibly buy such a dumb story, especially considering how thin the ice he'd been treading since last night since they ran into that dumb punk with the shades was.

"Kizamaro-kun!" Luna snapped suddenly, startling both boys.

"Y-yes, Iinchou?" asked Kizamaro warily, stepping forward, looking not at all pleased that he had been the selected of the two.

"Take Gonta-san home, and try to avoid the more public walkways of town, will you? See that he gets dressed and then give me a call when you're both done. I have a schedule to salvage."

To their great surprise, Luna turned on her heel and strode away towards the southwest without a second look back, putting her hand to her ear and activating her earpiece. As she walked, the boys heard her begin to speak. "Hello, Hazami-san? Please accept my apologies for earlier. I was wondering if we could reschedule that study session for Chiyokichi-kun for later today...?"

Kizamaro, left there in the cool October morning, was dumbfounded; he, too, had been expecting Luna's reprimand. Quickly regaining his senses, he shifted his backpack and cast an annoyed glance at Gonta. "Well, aren't you the lucky one? Iinchou ought to have chewed you out big for what you cost her."

Gonta had become entirely fascinated with his bare feet, nodding dumbly at Kizamaro's tirade. Having such an nonreactive child on his hands did not assuage Kizamaro's annoyance, sadly, so he decided he would get the whole affair over with. "Come on, you. Can't have you seen in those idiotic pajamas."

Gonta tensed again, and a flash of wrath consumed him. Oh, how he hated Saishouin. Absolutely _loathed_ him. It would be so immensely _satisfying_ to see the little piglet squealing in agony. And it would be too easy with Iinchou gone, just reach out, seize the brat, and _squeeze_-

"Are you listening?" demanded Kizamaro, causing Gonta to jerk his outstretched hand back in surprise. "Come ON! We don't have all day, moron!"

Gonta nodded shakily and followed along after Kizamaro, staring in mild shock at his hand. As he stared, a thought occurred to him - where had it come from? That incredible wrath and hatred... Now, Gonta freely admitted that he disliked Saishouin. Lots of people did (it wasn't hard to get into the habit). But that strange feeling of hatred... it was so fresh and completely out of nowhere that Gonta felt cold thinking about it. But it was true - it would be so... _easy_. To take _command_ of the situation, to just get Kizamaro alone (_as he was now_), to- NO! No, what was he _thinking?_ What was WRONG with him?

The chill Gonta felt was deep and penetrating, freezing his very bones. What had _happened_ to him last night? To think so easily... Gonta shivered. He needed to get _out of here!_

"Hey!" cried Kizamaro as Ushijima burst into a sprint, nearly knocking the younger child over. "What's wrong with you? Oy! OY! Where are you- fine, whatever. Idiot."

Ushijima's sudden sprint began within sight of his house, so Kizamaro could see him as he ran up to the door, threw it open and dived inside. ...Such a weird boy. Rolling his eyes, Kizamaro drew himself to a pause just beyond Ushijima's doorway. He had seen enough of the household earlier today to know he didn't want to go in at all.

...Besides, he could smell it from here.

With a small sigh, Kizamaro walked over to the house, pausing several feet away from the door. In his solitude, dark thoughts began returning to him. He couldn't understand it. He just couldn't see what everyone saw in the boy. Iinchou hadn't even punished him for his behavior (Kizamaro decided he would console himself with the addendum "yet"), despite the fact that he was always getting out of hand, like last night when he'd tried to beat up that Hoshikawa boy. Even his own _father_-

"Kizamaro? Hey, what are you doing here?"

Standing in the chill morning air, Kizamaro felt a small flutter in his stomach as he turned to discern the source of the noise. Much to his dismay, his suspicions were spot on. Woe to those who speak of the devil. "Good morning, Otou-san. I wasn't expecting to see you."

On a normal day, Saishouin Kenta would not be here in the suburbs of Kodama so late in the morning. His job as the chief of the accounting staff employed by _Platinum Smile, Incorporated_ required much of his time to be spent in an corner office in Yashibu town.

The elder Saishouin chuckled sheepishly, adjusting his glasses and scratching the back of his head. Both of them dressed in a simple dress shirt and tie, the two Saishouin men bore a particular resemblance to one another, though Kenta sported two main differences - his hair was not quite so unkempt and scraggly as his son's, and while the younger of them was short and shrinking of figure, his elder was long and lank by comparison, though looking perhaps a touch too thin for proper health. "I accidentally left some files at home, go figure - I must have been tired this morning. Had to come back to get it." Kenta paused in his narration to indicate a small hand-held clasped in his fingers. "Say, what are you doing here? Luna-san have you on another adventure?"

Kizamaro raised an eyebrow. He wasn't entirely sure that he was so keen on referring to the business Iinchou conducted as "adventure". "Unfortunately, no. Ushijima-san wasted quite a bit of our time this morning, not showing up when he was expected - we spent hours trying to find him and discovered him completely zoned out, perched on a crate in the park, wearing nothing but his pajamas. Iinchou had me walk him home so she could try and fix her schedule. Apparently she missed quite a few errands thanks to the blunder."

Kenta winced at the bite in Kizamaro's voice. "Huh. Is Gonta-kun okay?"

Kizamaro stiffened a hair in response. There it was _again_. "Oh, he's fine. It's probably just a phase. He claims he sleep-walked all the way there."

"Well, I hope it's just a phase," said Kenta, adjusting the shoulder bag he bore. "God knows the poor boy has enough problems."

Kizamaro harrumphed and cast an ugly look at the Ushijima's front door, the darkness in his expression luckily hidden by the glint of his eyeglasses in the morning sun.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't _fair_.

Kenta, somehow feeling his son's anguish more than seeing it, opened his mouth... only to be cut off.

"Otou-san, you shouldn't linger. They're probably expecting you back at work."

Kenta opened his mouth again to say something, though he found he couldn't. "...Yeah, I guess so. H-Have a good day, Kizamaro?"

"Yes, sir," answered Kizamaro noncommittally, not looking up.

Kenta hesitated for a moment, gazing sadly at his son from a few feet away. "I guess I'll see you then, Kizamaro. I'll try to be home by six."

A million miles away, Kizamaro nodded. "Have a good day, Otou-san."

As Kenta walked away, Kizamaro grimaced at the grass beneath his feet, kicking at it sullenly. Files, bullshit. His father had been coming from the house, but he hadn't been going to the shuttle station. The station that led to Yashibu was in the north, and the way there from the house did /not/ involve a sojourn by the Ushijima house.

Well, now he had an even better reason to be miserable.

His father had lied to him.

* * *

On the other side of town, Hoshikawa Subaru was lying across his couch, too exhausted for the panic he - in any other circumstance - would have engaged in. Despite the fact that it was a bright and shining morning, Subaru had set all the windows to auto-opaque, and activated the lights with a tired upward flick of his fingers (his Transer - Pegasus Command version - was auto-linked to the control unit of the house, which saved Subaru the trouble of getting up and inputting it directly).

If anything, he was particularly grateful that he was so exhausted - even though he was perhaps incapable of the clearest of thought, it was still better than the frenzied, fear-driven processes he had been expecting (it was perhaps a tad easier to get a sluggish train up to speed than for an out-of-control train to slow down). Of course, it was hard-won exhaustion - after all, agony was hard work. He would have to remember that, the next time he and War Rock fused. (As much as he loathed it, Subaru had tiredly accepted the idea that he really had no other choice on the subject - well, no choice that he would be able to live with himself for choosing). Happily, the mind-numbing reentry-burn (so dubbed because it had so far only occurred as a result of RockMan separating into his base components, or so Subaru assumed, considering his experience), had only lasted about ten minutes, and nobody seemed to have discovered Subaru in the mean time, luckily. After he had managed to get to his feet, Subaru had dodged into the house, by which is meant he dragged himself sluggishly towards the door and somehow managed to open it - having done so, he immediately fell inwards onto the floor and had to kick the door shut before worming over to the sofa.

"So, Son of Daigo, what is our plan?"

Subaru made a particularly dissatisfied noise into the cushions of the couch before shifting his head. "What CAN we do? Picking a fight didn't exactly work very well, now did it?"

War Rock was silent for a moment. He could find no way to challenge the boy's claim. Indeed, they had only really challenged Taurus Fire to bring a stop to his then-current ravaging of the Wave Road, as the aggressive fused-denpa had far too much momentum for them to outrun him properly in any case. "We must find something to do, Son of Daigo. Taurus will not be inactive if we so deign."

"What do you care?" muttered Subaru. "You ran away from him before, didn't you?"

"True," admitted War Rock, "but that was before I made the mistake of doing you a kindness and lost my autonomy for your trouble." Not giving Subaru a chance to do much more than give him a nasty look, War Rock continued, "Besides, even if I could do so, Taurus is more likely to stay here than to chase me."

Subaru raised an eyebrow in admitted curiosity. "And why is that, pray tell?"

"Because the Planet of Earth is judged guilty of war-crimes by the High King Cepheus."

"This is new," answered Subaru bemusedly (he was too exhausted to work up much more than that). "I thought they were here because you stole their toy."

"Toy?" responded War Rock in surprise. "What is a 'toy'?"

Subaru, some of the feeling having returned to his arms, propped himself up against the arm of the couch. "You stole that Key thing from them, right? Isn't that why they're chasing you?"

"Yes," War Rock answered as though he were dealing with some particularly ignorant child. "But I would never have been able to escape if your father had not provided the... opportunity."

At the mention of his father, Subaru practically threw himself into a sitting position, almost forgetting his exhaustion. Almost.

"My father?" he insisted. "What about him?"

War Rock hesitated - he would not be able to take advantage of a distraction as he did last time. "When I met your father, he was the leader of a band of other humans aboard that strange, mechanical vessel - what was it called - the Peace. It was emanating a strange signal toward the central mass of the planet."

"_Kizuna_," breathed Subaru in wonder, causing War Rock to pause.

"What was that?"

"_Kizuna_!" Subaru exclaimed again, sitting up a little more. "That was the Brother Band!"

"Brother Band?" War Rock repeated.

"The information exchange system that is generated between users of the Kizuna Network," Subaru explained (War Rock was beginning to notice a pattern in Subaru's enthusiasms). "Humans use it to mark close relationships, but the one we use was nothing compared to the one on the Peace. The Peace was essentially a massive Brother Band engine."

"...So it was not a weapon of war?"

Subaru froze and then slowly, slowly, looked at War Rock.

"My God, you must be joking."

War Rock was tempted to feel proud of himself for his beginning to grasp the nuances of human languages, though he refrained from it. "High King Cepheus has not applied humor in many ages. Nor has he applied curiosity. Fear, however, is a well-applied tool in his arsenal. Within practical moments of being detected, there was an assault on the aggressor and a trial."

Subaru, pale, managed to ask the question he didn't want to. "And the verdict?"

"You already know that."

Either the pain had surged, or his brain simply didn't quite want to let the idea in, but Subaru's head swam suddenly and he fell back on to his back.

"Son of Daigo, are you unwell?"

"Oh, I'm fine," muttered Subaru. "Just trying to deal with the fact that my planet is now a war criminal thanks to some paranoid alien." War Rock decided not to address how Subaru had left the subject of his father untouched.

"So, what do we do now, Son of Daigo?"

Subaru pushed himself back up into a sitting position, his body free of just about all of the Reversion pain. "I have no idea. What do you recommend?"

War Rock fell silent. The conflict had not left his mind for one moment since they emerged from that Wavehole. "In our current state - our power is too insufficient to do much harm, though that freezing weapon of yours has proven useful."

"Paralyzing," corrected Subaru, "but I don't think giving him arthritis for a few moments at a time is going to defeat him."

"No," said War Rock slowly, hoping that he was not wandering into a verbal trap. "I do not believe that this 'arthritis' will do much more than annoy him."

After several seconds' lacking of Subaru's typical snark, War Rock decided he was safe. "But Taurus Fire is not invincible."

"Funny," answered Subaru. "That's not how I remember it. Dude was swatting Cannon-fire aside like gnats, if I remember correctly. Nothing we did even fazed him."

"Perhaps," answered War Rock. "But that was what we thought of that Jamming creature from last night."

Subaru shivered, remembering the freakish creature. God, he wished he would never see one again. "What are you getting at?"

War Rock paused, wondering to himself how he should phrase his thoughts. "I believe we hold a slight advantage over Taurus Fire.

"When we faced the beast just now, you were so focused on reaching the Wavehole that you were only aware of your immediately necessary surroundings. When you used Taurus' host body against him - using his arm as a platform like that - you surprised him. 'Shocked' might indeed be a better word for it - Taurus had been caught entirely off guard by your maneuvering." As had War Rock, but they weren't going to go there. "This is important," he continued, cutting Subaru off, "because I believe he has enslaved his host."

"Enslaved?" repeated Subaru, stunned.

"Subjugated," War Rock responded quickly, seeking through his limited lexicon for a word the boy would understand. "Assimilated, taken over."

"I know what it means!" Subaru groaned. "Keep going."

War Rock paused for another moment before resuming. "When we faced Taurus Fire, his host was remarkably silent for the affair (as compared to you, someone who has very little problem with being noticed) - we only ever spoke with Taurus."

"Go on," said Subaru, nodding thoughtfully. "What about it?"

"I happen to know from past experience that Taurus is not particularly gifted in the realm of... 'diplomacy', let us call it, and I highly doubt that humans would react particularly favorably to a strange voice asking them for aid."

Subaru hardly shared War Rock's admittedly favorable opinion, but let the alien speak.

"I assume Taurus, last night encountered a favorable host and infested him." No, Subaru was _not _feeling particularly amused with War Rock's choice of verbiage. "I can't imagine why, as Taurus was at much greater strength than I was previously throughout our... 'hunt'. All I know is he has done so."

"Moving on," Subaru muttered, making a bored circular gesture with his hand (it would take War Rock some time, though he would eventually figure out the nature of human gesturing). "So Taurus has a puppet. What difference does it make?"

"Because I believe, Parrot Son of Daigo," (Subaru shot him a nasty look), "that Taurus Fire's margin of power is dependent on how focused Taurus Fire's components are, as it is with you and me – when we argue with one another, not much gets done, after all. With Taurus in sole command, it is his focus solely that determines Taurus Fire's level of strength. When you outmaneuvered him, his will was reduced to a brief stupor - but long enough for the Sword you summoned to dig its edge into his revered Ox Horns."

Subaru snorted at the reminder of Taurus' particular confusion on the subject, but War Rock was making an at least decent point. "So, assuming that's how it works, if we can show Taurus up enough to sow some doubt, we might be able to win with Battle Cards... the ones we have, in any case."

War Rock paused. "Superior-grade weaponry is available?"

"Uh, yeah," answered Subaru, unused to referring to Wave Battle as a weapon system (though now that he thought about it, there wasn't much of an emphasis on anything _besides_ ordnance in the game). "My deck's nothing particularly fancy. It's really just a 1st Gen Starter Deck."

"You mean to tell me you've been fighting with _inferior_ weaponry?" demanded War Rock, not particularly interested in this Starter Deck of the 1st Gen (whatever army this "Gen" belonged to) further than the understanding that greater alternatives were waiting to be had.

"Well, uh, yeah," answered Subaru with a shrug of his shoulders. "Bought a deck because everyone was playing it, couldn't get in the mood, and, well, I just never got into it."

"But you CAN get in, correct?" said War Rock eagerly. "These weapons are available to you, correct?"

"Well," answered Subaru, "sorta, I guess."

Just in time, Subaru caught War Rock shift suddenly on the other side of the Visualizer lens, jerking his Transer away from the lash of the alien's tail. "What's with you!"

"You and I are going to retrieve these superior weapons," answered War Rock simply, making another pass at the Transer with a swing of his arm. "It is nothing less than foolish to enter a battle with less than available power."

"No, we're not!" countered Subaru, who, having been galvanized out of his exhaustion, sprung across the arm of the couch, tumbled for a few feet and then dove away as War Rock again tried for the Transer. "I can't afford it!"

"HA!" cried War Rock, lunging for the Transer. "That doesn't concern me because I have no clue as to its meaning! Now come!"

Subaru yelped and dodged aside as the alien surged past (damn this Visualizer and it's miserable peripheral vision). "I mean we can't get any Battle Cards - hey, watch it! - because I don't have enough - I said 'Quit it!' - Zenny to pay him!"

War Rock paused in his pursuit of the Transer, not a little irked because Subaru had found away to deny it to him (Subaru had adopted a slightly modified rendition of the fetal position, which, while not particularly dignified, prevented War Rock from approaching the Visualizer). "Zenny? Daigo mentioned that once."

"It's our currency," Subaru mumbled into the floor as loud as he could, feeling not a little like an idiot. "If I want something from somebody else, I have to give them currency in return so that person can go and seek something from others. I haven't got enough Zenny for any Battle Cards - at least, not enough for any particularly useful ones," he finished. "Besides, nobody's around who sells 'em."

"Then let us go find more Zenny!" War Rock decided (the alien was becoming the decision-maker in this relationship perhaps a tad too quickly for Subaru's preference). "Where is Zenny to be found?"

Slowly, Subaru allowed himself to uncurl and sit on the floor. "Well," he began, "nobody I know around here is hiring, so I can't really get any work to earn it. The only other method I can think of is reward data."

"Reward data?"

"Something about defeating viruses in Wave Battle," Subaru mentioned. "Hold on a second."

With a quick swipe of his hand, Subaru summoned a wave screen, and tapped it several times, each in a difference place - text unintelligible to War Rock began to cascade down the page until Subaru made a quick line with his forefinger, bringing it to a halt. "Here we go:

"'Reward Data: When a rogue Virus is defeated, the remaining data fragments collect and format into a prize for the player. Most often the prize will be a certain amount of Zenny, the amount being dependent on the Virus defeated and the skill used in its defeat, however, in certain cases, viruses may drop special Battle Card data of their own power for the user to wield.'"

"Wait... so the hunting beasts have the weapons and currency we need?" War Rock said, much like a child trying to reassure himself he'd heard right. "Do we take it from them?"

"Exactly," answered Subaru, disintegrating the wave screen by casting his finger through the upper corner, and then, "Hey! Leggo!"

"Not a chance," answered War Rock, dragging Subaru to his feet with a jerk of his tail (which had wrapped firmly around the Transer when Subaru had let his guard down). "We have need of more power, and so we must retrieve it. Besides, you are too sloppy in battle. Training shall do you good."

Subaru strained against the pull of War Rock's tail (admittedly he was doing his arm no favors, but he didn't particularly care). "Fine! Fine! Just let me go!"

War Rock acquiesced as Subaru renewed his efforts, leaving him to the resulting process of physics. "Son of Daigo, get off the floor. We have work to do."

Subaru growled something particularly nasty under his breath as he got to his feet, wincing and rubbing his arm. "Shut up, you. I'm coming."

War Rock apparently trusted Subaru to keep his word, as his tail remained a respectful distance away from the Transer. As the latter approached the door, he turned all the lights out with a wave of his hand and reached for the handle.

And then the siren went off.

* * *

"...Thank you so much for understanding, Hazami-san. I'll see you later today at four o'clock, then? Excellent. Good-bye."

Luna tapped gently against the earpiece she was wearing (an elegant little thing, with a small golden crescent dangling from it – tasteful without too much ostentation), disconnecting the conversation. She allowed herself a brief smile at her successful rescheduling of the tutoring session, and then turned to the next item on her agenda, bringing up a schedule and checking the next item. "Ah, Hoshikawa-san. _So we meet again_."

This time around, Luna had decided she would approach the poor boy on her own this time, as her associates were more likely to hinder her success than she first anticipated - she did not, in particular, want another scene with Gonta, bless his heart. Now, then, let's see... Well. How interesting. Hoshikawa-san happened to live down the street from her, though in a different neighborhood. (Suddenly, back up plans were forming in Luna's head, but she cast them away – she would have plenty of time to think them up if she needed to). With relatively little to worry about for the moment, Luna allowed her eyes to drift skyward, and then whistled at what she saw.

Above her, an Advert Ship could be seen cruising through the air, massive wavescreens advertising new programming for the coming vision-wave season - including a hyped new drama starring world-famous idol and singing star, Hibiki Misora, or, rather, just MISORA.

Luna was hardly afraid to admit she was something of a fan of MISORA - a rising star whose incredible talents had seen her fly upwards to national spotlight over the past few years. Admittedly, she was a bit more self-controlled about her conduct then her associates were - Gonta-kun in particular had a particular weakness in the head for pretty girls, and Kizamaro... well, she just wouldn't go there-

WHAM.

"Oof! Hey, watch where you're going!" Luna snapped, righting herself (and hoping her opposite wouldn't call her out for being just as guilty) - she managed to force down her own blush when she managed to get a good look at who exactly had bumped into her...

_Wh-Whoa_. Those were some VERY brown eyes. (Okay, so maybe today wouldn't be so bad as it seemed).

"Oh, geez, I'm sorry about that," said the young man she had so gracelessly crashed into. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine! Just fine!" squeaked Luna (horrified at herself for two reasons - one, she was ruining her singing voice, and two, she must have looked like an idiot). "I'm sorry - I didn't mean to run into you."

The young man laughed, a bright and cheerful noise that Luna never never _ever_ wanted to forget. "Are you sure? I did hit you kind of hard, there."

Luna had to force herself to stop staring like a dolt at his eyes (twinkling, handsome, chocolate ones, at that... NO! Stop it, woman!). "N-No, it's okay. It's my fault, I - Ack! Your papers!"

When Luna had crashed into the man, he had lost his grip on his briefcase and it had hit the ground, unlatching and spilling what were probably very important papers all over the ground - a scenario which had not been helped by the wind that had kicked up when Luna had been distracting the man by acting like a schoolgirl (the fact that she was one being entirely besides the point). The man yelped and immediately seized for the some of the more high-flung ones. "I'm sorry, please excuse me!"

"N-No problem! Let me help!"

"That's okay, I've got it!"

Luckily, there hadn't been that many papers thrown high by the gust of wind, which made their job much easier. The man, who could reach farther, ended up gathering most of them, though Luna had seized a couple, too. As she held them, she attempted to sort them into some kind of order, catching a small section of text as she worked.

**_Project: K.I.Z.U.N.A. _**

"Oops! Aheh, thanks for helping, there."

Luna squeaked, startled, as the papers were gently snatched from her hands, her blush intensifying. "Sorry, I didn't mean to read anything important."

"It's okay, really," said the man as he snapped his briefcase shut. He stood up, lifting the briefcase over his shoulder and smiling boyishly. "Say, could you do me a favor?" he asked, brushing some of his hair (soft, light-brown... _damnit_, woman!) out of his face.

"Uh, I think so," Luna offered. "What would you like?"

"Well," the man said, coughing awkwardly into his fist and looking shyly to the side. "I'm kinda new in town – I just moved here from Akihara, and I was just going to visit a friend. Except I forgot where his street is - do you know where 'Harmony' is from here? I know it's somewhere out there," he said, casting his free arm to the southwest, "but I just can't remember where."

"Harmony?" Luna repeated, wondering how incredibly lucky she was. "That's where I'm going! I have... a-a friend (yes, that's it) who lives there."

"Well, that's good," said the (lower-twenty-something, fresh out of college by the looks of it) man, chuckling again. "I hope the place I'm headed isn't too far away."

Luna checked the information on her Transer. "Is it anywhere near... 2183?"

The man blinked in surprise. "Unless I'm mistaken, it's the very same."

Would miracles never cease?

"Well, that's good!" said Luna (who thankfully had a handle on the squeaking at this point), smiling broadly.

"Shall we?" asked the man, indicating the signal - which had just changed to WALK. Luna blushed a little and nodded, and they began to cross.

"So, er, wh-what are you doing here in town?" Luna asked curiously, looking up at the young man.

"Hmm? Oh, well, besides, the friend I'm visiting, I have some old friends who live here now. I figure I'd move in, join the party, y'know. Got a job offer out here, too, which is... okay, so that's why I came," said the man, laughing at himself.

"Can I ask what?" Luna asked tentatively. "Anything to do with that Project Kizuna thing?"

The man blinked at her, and the raised an eyebrow at her. "No, I'm afraid not - that's for another friend. And I don't suppose I could ask you to keep a lid on that, could I? It won't mean much to a lot of people, but you never know."

Luna blushed and nodded her head vigorously. (Blast it, why was this happening? Self-control, self-control...) "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

The man chuckled again, interrupting her. "Don't worry about it. I'm here because I have some work to do at an office down near Beach Street. I'm a psychiatrist."

Luna blinked in mild surprise. The man's labcoat (for he indeed was wearing an old-style white labcoat) suggested many things, but certainly not psychiatry. "Oh, really? How curious. I wouldn't have guessed that."

The man laughed. "That's quite alright. Most people don't, either. Ah, here we are: Harmony."

"Yes," answered Luna, "but you're farther south than this."

"Oh, that's right," chuckled the man. "I've only been here for a day - just got in last night, actually."

"Really?" asked Luna. "Well, welcome to Kodama-cho," she continued, offering a little curtsey. "I hope we've made a good first impression."

The man laughed again (he certainly liked to do so, it seemed - not that that was a bad thing – stop it, Luna!). "Nothing for me to complain about yet," he answered. "Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? I'm Dr. Hikari."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Hikari-hakase. I'm Shirogane Luna."

The man smiled again, sending her into a fresh fit of blushing. "That's a pretty name, Shirogane-san. Perhaps you shouldn't give it out so easily, though," he said, looking away for a moment. "Not in this world."

Luna blinked. "Pardon? What was that?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. Sorry about that." He looked up and blinked at something in the distance. "Hey, I know this place! Thank you so much, Shirogane-san. I can make it from here."

"You're welcome, Hikari-hakase, it wasn't a problem. Actually, I was going to visit- what's wrong?"

They had come to a stop in the center of a crosswalk before reaching the other side. Dr. Hikari's eyes had narrowed, though they weren't focused on anything in particular. "Do you hear something, Hikari-hakase?" At that moment, their Transers went off - the alarm signal loud and urgent.

Dr. Hikari didn't answer in words. Instead, his eyes flew wide and he whipped around in the direction they'd come. Luna yelped as he seized her by the waist and ran - practically flew, as it were - towards the direction of the sidewalk.

Luna, under normal circumstances, would have objected most strongly (fluttering heart be damned). At the moment, however, she had no such compunction, as she saw what, exactly, her elder had just saved her from: not a second after they had vacated their location, a yellow cab had hurtled through it at breakneck speeds, turning so suddenly that it skid into a fence across the street before circling about and charging at them again.

Dr. Hikari swore and dodged aside again, as the cab missed them again, but slammed headlong into a tree. (Later, when Luna would have time to sit down and mull over it, she would wonder how Dr. Hikari had managed carry both her and the briefcase in his arms - untiringly at that - while dodging the mad cab). There was a pause, in which they were able to get a good look at the vehicle in question - though Luna almost wished she hadn't.

"It's empty," Luna noted, feeling suddenly very scared. "There's no one inside."

She looked up at Dr. Hikari (who hadn't let go), who was staring at the control console with growing apprehension. "Hikari-hakase, what's wrong?"

"Plenty," he muttered. "This car, primarily." He remained silent about two other things - one, that the car had surpassed its built-in speed limits, and two, that it was following massively erratic patterns (as a cab, it should have only followed aligned city paths, turning only where designated). "I think there might be a virus. You stay here, Shirogane-san," he added, letting her down. "I'm going to go check it out."

"I-I can help," Luna offered, perhaps a little eagerly. "I'm not bad at dealing with viruses, myself."

"That's okay," said the doctor, smiling. "This one looks pretty bad - let me check it out first, and if something happens, you can be my backup. Here, hold this for me," he finished, handing her the briefcase - she readily took it and held it close.

Dr. Hikari looked around at the neighboring houses - they all had sent up small wave texts of 'WARNING' and 'DANGER' around their perimeters – which meant they had entered a neighborhood-wide Emergency Mode, which meant opaque windows and auto-locked doors (somebody somewhere was probably not altogether pleased with the sudden change in their schedule), which, while not perfect, would let him take something of a closer look than with an audience.

The tree that the yellow cab had slammed into was an oak - just thick and solid enough to withstand what little force the cab could summon after taking off that second time. The hood was horrendously mangled - damage sufficient enough to warrant an auto-shutdown of the car's primary system (the engine module was small enough that it had probably been spared most of the damage). The hover engines (which were far, far less noisome than tires... though very few people were likely to know what tires were any more) had all shut down, luckily, leaving the vehicle in a heap at the base of the tree.

Dr. Hikari reached the cab and tried the door - it had been crushed shut. Taking another brief look back at Luna (who was a few yards away from the other side of the car), he offered her an encouraging smile, and grasped the door handle again. It popped open with a crunch (panicked, Dr. Hikari looked over his shoulder to see if anyone had seen - no one, luckily).

As Luna had noticed, the cab was completely empty and dark. Dr. Hikari had to wonder what kind of virus had gotten into the system to make it malfunction so thoroughly - and then a thought hit him. Maybe this car hadn't been hit by a virus - viruses destroyed programming, but this vehicle hadn't been suffering from a malfunction. It had been taken definite deviations from its programming - somebody had driven it into the tree.

And it hadn't been a NetNavi.

As he sat down in the driver's seat, the doctor noted the driving console. The screen was cracked, perhaps, but not much damage besides a light fracture of the holo-glass, where something had stabbed it. What he found far more interesting were the loose wires hanging down from where the keyhole once had been.

Had somebody tried to hijack this car? If so, who, and where had they gone?

"Hikari-hakase?" called Luna worriedly. "Dr. Hikari? Do you see anything?"

"Nothing that makes sense," he called back.

"Wasn't it a virus?"

"_No, it was not._"

Dr. Hikari, who was not the one who had answered, whipped his head around, staring at the answering speaker. "D-DrivingMan?"

The cracked screen blinked on, displaying a dark, robotic creature that was like a NetNavi, but unlike any Navi Dr. Hikari had ever seen - and he had seen a _lot_ of them. "_Wrong, human. We are... Jamming._"

The car rumbled, and the hover-engines restarted with a crackle and a sudden thunder (the only noise hover engines would make was during their startup operation - following that, they were as silent as a mouse - but Dr. Hikari could hear far more than mice), lifting the wreckage of the car from the tree. Before he could stop it, the door swung shut again and trapped him - he could hear Luna give a muffled scream, at which point he decided, well, he'd already... _bent _the rules just a minute ago, so why not?

Down on the ground, Luna bit her lip and backed away from the growling machine as it pulled back from the tree. She knew she wanted to run, but she knew it would make no difference.

There was a sudden crunch, and Luna gasped as the driver's side door broke free and fell to the ground, followed quickly by her new associate. "Luna, run!"

"Where?" Luna screamed.

"AWAY!" cried the doctor as the cab whirled around and smashed him with its tail-end, flinging him away like some great doll.

Luna shrieked and made to go after him when the cab lights flashed red suddenly and the horn went off. Hating herself for it, Luna turned and ran.

...Left behind, sprawled across the ground, Dr. Hikari shook his head woozily.

"Are you okay?" asked a voice, and he looked up.

"My God, you're -" whispered the doctor, and then he caught himself. "Wh-Who are you?"

"That's not important right now. How badly are you injured?"

"I'm fine," he answered, wiggling his legs - the newcomer registered a double take in kind. "I've been hit by worse- _what the Hell are we doing?_ I'm fine! The girl, save the girl!"

The newcomer yelped, nodded, and lunged away with a last curious look at the doctor.

As the figure rushed away, Dr. Hikari sighed and, rubbing his neck, got to his feet. Well, that was exciting. He looked back over to where he had left Luna before examining the car... and felt a sudden, massive plummeting of his stomach.

Luna still had the briefcase.

Crap, was he ever going to get a lecture for this.

* * *

The alarm had been so sudden, Subaru had actually stumbled back and fallen over when it had gone off. "What the Hell? What's wrong now?"

"I do not know. Everything was peaceful until just now. I did not expect Taurus to so quickly launch a localized attack."

Subaru rolled back and then sprung upright onto his feet, taking a moment to steady himself. "Emergency mode. The house was set to enter an auto-lockdown. Whole neighborhood, looks like," he added, dodging to the window.

"How do you figure?"

Subaru pointed out the dimmed window towards what could be seen - floating words of some kind were parading around the other buildings on the street, though War Rock, who was barely fluent in Human, had no grasp of reading. "I see. So, what does that mean for us?"

"Well, the main point would be to sit down and hide, but I have no idea what the emergency is in the first place. A report should've come up- ah, here we go."

As he spoke, a wave-screen rose from the Transer - instead of words, this time, there was the image of a rather pretty woman in what War Rock would later learn was a business suit.

"Several moments ago, Western Kodama released an Emergency Signal in response to reports of a autotaxi going completely rogue as it was taking a freeway offramp into Kodama, causing a severe traffic accident that has blocked all usage of the same exit - as the only one into that particular section of town is now blocked, Satellite Police enforcement squads have been forced to take detours to reach the neighborhood where the vehicle has escaped to."

As the woman spoke, a second wave-screen blossomed beside the first, showing a helicopter-view of the neighborhood - which Subaru immediately recognized as his own.

"Well, that's fantastic," muttered Subaru. "Will wonders never cease?"

"What do you want to do?" asked War Rock. "Shall we wait until the danger has passed?"

"Since when have we ever tried to avoid a dangerous situation?" retorted Subaru, eliciting a chuckle from the alien.

"Point taken," said War Rock. "Wait, where are you heading?"

"Out," answered Subaru, who had reached the stairs. "Security protocols should prevent all hijacking, so this smells like a virus."

"But the proper exits are all sealed, I thought," pressed War Rock, interestedly. "...Are we going to break one down?" he added, sounding like a three-year-old in anticipation of his birthday present.

Subaru let out a bark of laughter. "You wish. Nah, Dad never held with the total lockdown feature - one too many horror movies as a kid, I guess - we have a couple of doors and windows that don't follow protocols."

"Is Daigo the only one who has taken such measures?" asked War Rock.

"Well, that I know of," Subaru answered, reaching the height of the stairs. "Then again, I don't usually go into all the nooks and crannies of everbody else's homes, looking for others' secrets."

"Where do you usually go?" Apparently War Rock's sense of sarcasm was hit or miss.

Subaru ignored him, tramping up the stairs at the end of the second-floor hallway into the attic, otherwise known as Subaru's room. From there, he climbed the last set of stairs and leapt, catlike, up onto the windowsill behind his bed, which was just wide enough to fit him. He fiddled with the corner for a moment, and then the window slid open, letting in a breeze.

"Security risk?" ventured War Rock.

"You'd better believe it," chuckled Subaru, sliding out. "You coming?"

War Rock phased through the unopened windowpane, causing Subaru to roll his eyes. "Cute, you." There was a swish as Subaru slid the window back into place. "Now, then, where's that-"

Subaru's sentence was suddenly punctuated by a mighty crunching noise - just as they made it to the top of the roof, they saw the rear ended of the vindicated cab flying down the street, pieces of what was once someone's fence flying off as it sped by. "Never mind. You ready?"

"You surprise me, Son of Daigo. I didn't think you would be so eager."

"I haven't got a choice, you haven't got a choice," said Subaru curtly. "The faster we get it over with, the faster I can get the burn over with."

"Fair enough."

Subaru smiled a little. "_Denpa-Henkan. Hoshikawa Subaru: On Air!_"

There was a sudden flash, and suddenly it was RockMan in Subaru's place, running and leaping across the house tops. Again, that surge of sudden, dizzying energy (okay, so he had to admit, _Denpa-Henkan_ was way cool) filled Subaru's head - a great song of heat and excitement. As RockMan, Subaru felt invincible - he could outrun and out-jump any Olympian - in a single bound he crossed three housetops, and when he was trying he made seven and an intersection.

"Son of Daigo, I believe our efforts may be in vain."

"Why's that?"

"Ahead: the strange machine seems to have brought itself to a stop."

"What makes you say... oh, never mind." As if in response to his curiosity, the wave-modified Visualize Visor zoomed in on the scene - the cab had launched itself into the trunk of an old oak tree some six blocks away - they could get there in about a few minutes at this rate.

As he ran, Subaru saw the pair of humans near to the cab speak to each other - hey, wait... Oh, joy, it was the girl from last night - whatshername, Luna. Fantastic. Next to her was an older man, in a labcoat, of all things, who handed her his briefcase and approached the car. Subaru grinned when he tried the door and found it sealed, between the autolock and the general mangle of the car. And then he - well, he tugged gently - and the door practically wrenched open. "Wow," Subaru whistled.

"Is something unusual about that human?" War Rock asked.

"He's certainly way strong," Subaru admitted. "Wouldn't want to pick a fight with him in a dark alley."

The man slid into the cockpit of the car, and then several things happened all at once. The door slammed shut of its own accord, the hover dynamos all restarted with a noise of thunder (the only thing noisy about hover dynamos was the first few seconds of startup), and Luna shrieked bloody murder as the car rose from the tree. Subaru had a sudden and very nasty sinking feeling about the cab, and how much more convenient it was as a vessel than that old locomotive.

"Son of Daigo, I believe we have need of greater haste."

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Subaru cried, having thrown himself into a full forward pelt – as if to prove his point, his next jump carried him across five houses.

"We can go faster," War Rock noted.

"How's that?"

"Jump!" said War Rock. "I will take care of the rest."

Subaru did as he was told, and the green flames issuing from the back of War Rock's skull erupted, encasing the both of them in a blaze of green light. They were suddenly surging forward, though Subaru realized with a sudden churning of his stomach that it wouldn't be fast enough.

There was another great crunch, and they saw the door came completely off its hinges, quickly followed by the man, whose order for Luna to scram was punctuated with the sudden ramming of his torso with the trunk of the cab. Subaru saw the man go sailing through the air and land in a heap, and Luna screaming and running as the cab turned its attention to her.

Unsure of what to do, Subaru landed nearby the man, who was groaning and stirring on the ground. He dodged over and got down on one knee.

"Are you okay?" he asked, dropping the tone of his voice back into imitating his father (hey, it wouldn't help to be recognized out of costume by his voice).

Beneath him, the man registered a double-take as he looked at him. (Subaru had only a vague idea of what he and War Rock looked like when fused, but he didn't think it was that startling. Well, on the other hand, the man had just been hit by a car - he had good excuse to be out of it).

"My God, you're -" the man whispered, and then coughed, apparently clearing his head. "Wh-Who are you?"

"That's not important right now. How badly are you injured?" Subaru felt something of a morbid compulsion to ask - while he hadn't really spent much time wondering how much getting hit by a car would hurt, the man before him was acting as though he had merely taken a small tumble.

"I'm fine," he answered, wiggling his legs - Subaru had to register a double-take. "I've been hit by worse," the man continued, and then his eyes widened into a panic. "What the hell are we doing? I'm fine! The girl, save the girl!"

Subaru yelped, remembering the emergency and leapt into the air again, War Rock again surging forward after the cab. Subaru took only the briefest of moments to look at the man he left behind before he turned his attention on the cab and its target.

There were two things to be done - one, save the girl, and two, stop the cab.

Subaru remained silent for a moment, wondering if the idea that had just popped into his mind would work. Well, no point in beating around the bush. "War Rock, you mind getting read to use Battle Cards?"

"Not a problem."

They sped forward, closer to ground level, and then in an instant, Subaru had Luna in his arms. Well, his non-alien arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked as War Rock flew out of the cab's path.

Whatever response he had been seeking (swooning, gushing praise, what have you), it certainly hadn't been Luna shrieking _further _bloody murder and slugging him in the jaw so hard if he was human it might have fractured. Knocked so suddenly off course, the duo (well, trio) crashed suddenly into the ground, spilling across someone's lawn.

"Oww," Subaru moaned, feeling his jaw. "What was that for, damnit?"

With a groan, he sat up and glared at Luna (War Rock, for his part, was trying to empty his jaw of dirt). Luna looked back at him, decent enough to look embarrassed. "Well, I'm sorry! I panicked!"

"Son- ah, RockMan?" said War Rock.

"Panicked about what? That somebody wanted to save you?"

"Hey!" growled Luna. "I said I was sorry - and, yes, I panicked! Getting hounded by a possessed taxi does that to you!"

"RockMan," War Rock tried again. "Have you got a moment?"

"That was hardly any reason to hit me like that!"

"HEADS UP!" War Rock roared.

Subaru whipped his head up to see the cab had finished plowing through another fence and was zooming towards them again. He yelped and lunged forward, catching Luna and leaping out of the way. He landed neatly on his feet this time, and, realizing he couldn't fight with a woman in his arms, he leapt upwards on top of one of the nearby houses, depositing her perhaps a tad more roughly than was necessary before returning to the street.

"Wave Battle!" Subaru announced. "Ride On!"

The six cards shimmered into view, floating around the rear of War Rock's skull. There was a certain level of - let's call it "glee" - in Subaru's expression as he discovered the card he sought in the initial draw. He quickly selected it and a three White Cards beside it (it was quite a nice draw), slipping them into the green flames as the car righted itself, wheeling around as its hover engines made the grass hiss.

Now, admittedly, Luna, perched atop the house where she had been so gracelessly dumped, was perhaps out of her depth in the current situation - between the crazed taxi and her... well, his attempt to remove her from the vehicle's path had worked, ungainly as its results had been, so "hero" was perhaps appropriate - but all that aside, she was certain - okay, well, perhaps not - that she was hearing things. And, Good Lord, were those...? No way... no way, no way.

Had the newcomer really just begun a Wave Battle?

Subaru wasted no time in activating the first Card - as RockMan, the Battle Cards largely responded to him not as a matter of will but of instinct, such as the difference between gripping and writing with a pointer and wiggling your fingers (and it was really rather difficult to get used to) - a small light appeared in the cup of his palm, and in an instant he was gripping a small orange ball with a brown stripe.

"Son of Daigo, what is this?"

"You'll see."

The car bore down on Subaru as he gripped the ball in his fingers and then he suddenly dropped to one knee and flung his hand low - the ball went rolling down the street as the cab came zooming up.

There was a sudden, mighty explosion of light and flame (in related news, War Rock's question was suddenly answered) - the Heat Ball had gone off exactly as Subaru had intended (perhaps a bit more so than he had expected, to judge from the frenzied grin), beneath the chasse of the vehicle. The wreckage of the cab was blasted into the air above Subaru and War Rock, where it flipped several times before landing on its back with a smash, it's hover-engines demolished from the explosion.

"Huh," muttered Subaru, rather surprised. "That was easy."

Luna's opinion was perhaps slightly different. "Hey, you! Did you just BLOW THAT CAR UP? A little risky, DON'T YOU THINK?"

For some bizarre reason, that simple (accurate) criticism completely shattered the atmosphere. "Hey, at least I beat it! And you're welcome, by the way!"

"I'm welcome?" demanded Luna. "I never said Thank You!"

"No shit! You're the least grateful... erm, rescue victim ever!" Wow, did that ever suck as a comeback.

"Er, RockMan?" said War Rock (he was having trouble getting used to the name - it was a little too close to referring to oneself in the third person).

"If by 'rescue victim' you mean 'victim of a rescue', then certainly!" And then, "And what was with that stupid Heat Ball? Couldn't you have taken off an engine with a Suigetsuzan or something?"

Subaru grimaced. "I- I was going to do that!" he shouted back. "I had a Sword - I just went with the Heat Ball!"

"And what if you missed?" Luna shouted (she was apparently coping rather well with the real world Wave Battle issue). "If that had gone off at the wrong time, you could've set the neighborhood on fire! Grass and trees burn, you twit! Couldn't have you used better Cards?"

War Rock had to admit, this girl had a talent for making Subaru flinch.

"It's a Starter Deck!" Subaru shouted back (with not a small blush – though the opacity of the visor did him the favor of obscuring his face).

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH A CRAPPY LITTLE STARTER DECK?" Luna practically screamed at him (War Rock wasn't entirely sure, but he was starting to think that this girl was criticizing Subaru because, somewhere, deep down, she was enjoying it - which certainly wasn't to say Subaru wasn't giving her anything to criticize). "RockMan, a moment of your time? Please?"

Humans liked "please". They were supposed to, anyway.

"It's all I had to work with!" Subaru retorted. "I'm new to this whole thing! I'd like to see you do better!"

"I'd take some time to plan what I was going to do, first!" Luna shot back. "And my plans would be perhaps a little more subtle than 'Detonate a bomb and hope that it works'!"

"I would've done that," Subaru growled, "except I made the mistake of thinking it would be better if I saved your sorry life!"

"EXCUSE ME!" roared War Rock.

"WHAT NOW?" they roared back.

"Our job isn't finished yet, RockMan," said War Rock, annoyance clear. "The weapon is accounted for, but not the user."

"It's not going anywhere."

"And neither are you," War Rock pointed out. "But if this is the same as last night, then we have need of haste. The problem may yet escape to wreak havoc elsewhere."

Luna squeaked, the parts of the conversation that had reached her ears leaving her not a little startled. "Hey! You aren't LEAVING me here, are you?"

Subaru cast a glance at her. "You'll be fine. The roof slopes down a bit closer to the patio cover on the side of the house over there. If you want, you can try and jump from there. If you don't want, you can sit there until the police squad gets here. Now then, if you don't mind, I have some work to do. Wave-In!"

Luna gasped as she watched the boy lay his hand (he only had one, what with that freakish head having consumed his left) on what had once been the car's rear fender and disappeared in a flash.

"You... You JERK! You come back here and get me down!"

Nothing doing. Luna had been abandoned atop the building. It wasn't that she was helpless – she'd been a gymnast since she was two – it was that the jerk who had saved her had no actual regard for her. She wasn't asking for his devotion, but a kind word or encouragement would've been nice – oh, and not leaving her up here to fend for herself.

And they said chivalry was dead.

With a roll of her eyes, she strolled along the edge of the building's roof (the area saw very little rainfall, so many of the roofs were flat or tiered), dodging around the Satellite Receiver. She found the patio cover where the jerk had pointed her out.

Luna looked down over the edge of the roof – assuming, she could somehow slip down over the cover, she might try to land on the air conditioning unit, there. Assuming it was bulky enough to support her.

She sucked in a deep breath, and crouched down. Within a moment, Luna was atop of the unit, and then she was standing on the sidewalk, carelessly brushing some imaginary dust off of her arm.

She glanced back over to the street – the houses were still all locked down in Emergency Protocol, which left her and the wreckage of the car alone.

"Oy, Luna! Luna! Sorry I'm late! Wow, what happened here?"

Luna gasped at the sound of her name and jerked her head around.

"Hikari-hakase! You're okay?"

Dr. Hikari waved and laughed. He was not completely unscathed - he was shambling down the sidewalk, his left leg more or less about as out of luck as it could get and still carry him. Every step brought at the very least a wince.

"It only grazed me," he called. "I've been hit with worse!"

"It threw you across the street!" Luna cried, jogging over to him. "What do you mean, 'it only grazed' you?"

Dr. Hikari chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. Gee, kids these days were smart. "I've got some metal in my body from when I was younger," he answered. "I'm not invincible, but I can take hits a bit better than most people."

Luna blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry! I had no idea!"

"Don't worry about it!" Wow, he had such a sweet laugh. "So, was it the kid in blue who did this?" he asked, indicating the car with a nod of his head.

Luna's eyes widened. "You saw that?"

"Luna-san, he blew up a car. How could I have _not_ seen it?"

Luna felt a sheepish smile grow along her face. "Well, I don't know. Were you not paying attention?"

"Did you see how he did it?"

Luna's smile slackened a little. "Er, Hikari-hakase, how much do you know about Wave Battle?"

The man raised an eyebrow (which was perhaps a bit more than slightly discouraging). "The kids' game? With the Battle Cards?"

"Yes, that one. Do you play?"

"Well, I haven't missed the advertising," answered the doctor with a lopsided grin. "I don't really-"

Luna was once again denied the pleasure of listening to him finish a proper sentence, instead being suddenly shunted behind the man. Again, she would have protested, but she was allowed enough leeway to see what was happening.

Something, massive and dark, was emerging from the car, wrenching itself free of the cab with black hands, its red eyes and a wicked smile curling as the metal of the vehicle crumpled and tore like rice paper in its claws.

It looked at them, and they looked back, and then it opened its mouth.

"_Join us."_

* * *

Yep. Exactly as expected. Wow, Subaru hated Waving In.

"It's a shame they don't make Wave In sickness pills," Subaru muttered to himself, staggering around as he waited for the world to stop spinning. "I wouldn't have to earn my sea legs the hard way."

"Sea legs? Are those some kind of award?"

"Sort of. It's a figure of speech - when people sail on the ocean, some have trouble getting used to the way the ship moves and it makes them sick. When they get used to it, they can walk around normally. That's when they get what they call sea legs."

"Ah. You humans have too many of those figures of speech. Do you have your sea legs, yet?"

"Just about," Subaru answered, planting his feet. "Whoa. We did some _damage_."

Subaru had come to his conclusion based on the fact that, as he looked around, he saw massive, terrible rifts scored in the "floor" of the E.S. (Subaru had just now settled on using this term for EM Space, which was the phrase he had just now settled on using to describe the strange worlds in the core of various computers he and War Rock kept popping into uninvited), their edges de-rezzing into little floating pixels which in turn faded into nothingness. The viruses - more simple Mettorio, MoeRoaders, and Meramanders, thankfully - had swarmed to each of these rifts like flies to a wound, which was, frankly, creepily accurate.

Back before they had blown up the cab, Subaru assumed the E.S. must have been a fair bit more bright and cheerful place, viruses not withstanding. Now it was really rather dismal. And there was that whole festering wound deal.

Subaru walked forward, glancing over his shoulder. Now, where was the control unit? He stepped aside to let a MoeRoader pass, the motorized unicycle's manic grin almost eliciting a chuckle from him. (One of the things he remembered about low level viruses like this one was that they were perfectly content to do their thing if you left them alone - it was when you made a point of going after one of them that they all made a point of coming back for you).

Continuing forward, he discovered what he sought - before them was a fair-sized piece of "machinery", various readouts all puttering down near the lower end of the scales. Subaru whistled and tapped it, summoning a screen that began to run through another cascade of information.

"How weird," he noted, looking over the data.

"That doesn't sound pleasant," said War Rock. "Why does that not sound pleasant?"

"Hmm? Oh. Well, several reasons. The first is that most of these cars are usually run by a NetNavi, like that one from this morning. The NetNavis that drive cars are usually specified for the task - they're activated when someone uses a DrivingMan Navi Card, which sends an order to the DrivingMan Core, which responds by sending a copy of itself to drive the car - its the same with all NetNavis, AirConMan, TeacherMan (Aide, too, ugh). When the job is done, the copy makes a record for the user and then returns."

"Very well; so, what prompted the curiosity?"

"The DrivingMan that they use for cabs are generally self-sufficient (you don't find many human drivers these days), so they write their record to the cab itself. The problem is that the record is broken."

"Broken?"

"It exists," Subaru explained. "I'm looking at it right now, but... it cuts off all of a sudden, no end line or anything. It's like DrivingMan was here, and then he was just _gone_."

"Ah. And the second?"

"The record talks about a passenger. Well, a thief, probably - the last line here says that the passenger attempted to hijack the system... and then it goes blank."

"Ah. So, that's why it doesn't sound pleasant. Thank you for explaining."

"No problem," said Subaru, smiling a little (so maybe War Rock wasn't such miserable company after all, freeloader that he was). "But it still doesn't make sense, as far as I know. NetNavis don't just disappear (obviously, I know, but still), not without a record of them finishing. Did... no, I doubt it."

"You doubt what?"

"For a second, I was wondering if the Core had gone rogue, but I doubt it for two reasons - one, if the core HAD gone rogue (in spite of its in-designed strictures to prevent it, so yeah), there would probably be a lot more weirdness than just one little cab going out of control; two, I only had the thought because I've watched way too many cheap sci-fi movies with hot women in them."

War Rock wasn't going to touch that one - he had no particular desire to find out why this child watched human females being incinerated in cheap machinery. If that was what he meant, which War Rock doubted. How he hated the Human vernacular.

"So," he asked, determined to get the disturbing image out of his mind. "What do you think?"

"I don't know," answered Subaru. "Something important - that record continues up until maybe ten/fifteen minutes ago, which about was when this thing went crazy. Okay, so something took control of this, but what happened to the DrivingMan?"

_"...He was _delicious_."_

The following moments were a great and sudden blur - Subaru and War Rock, each suddenly feeling an incredible movement of dread, dropped to the floor, just barely being missed by the thrust of a massive fist through the space where Subaru's head had just been. Not missing a beat, Subaru whipped War Rock's head towards the assailant, loading the second Battle Card he had loaded way back when. The Sword stroke was enough - the Jamming fell quickly to the floor, it's leg having been severed from its body. Hopping to his feet, Subaru made sure to kick the appendage into one of the massive rifts torn in the floor before leaping away.

Perhaps it was because he was getting somehow used to these freaks, or perhaps because it looked so pathetic trying to right itself, but Subaru was feeling a fair bit less unsettled this time, which was magnificent for clarity of thought. Besides, it was his turn to enjoy himself at the other's expense.

"Dude, I'm impressed. Didn't I kill you yesterday?"

The Jamming made the mistake of trying to respond before it managed to balance itself on its foot. _"We are Jamming!"_ it crackled as it faceplanted. _"We do not die!"_

War Rock made a musing noise to himself. "It would seem the Jamming-beast has been restored since its defeat and has since moved on to a new target. It is a tad less drone-like."

"New target?" asked Subaru, looking down at the alien. The same four cards he had left behind returned with replacements for the others. Subaru promptly selected three nice ones and returned his attention to the fallen Jamming. "Who?"

"I believe I know where our missing passenger disappeared to."

"Oh, crap," Subaru said, watching the poor creature writhe (it was hard to feel such aversion to it when it was so very out of luck) in an attempt to right itself. "Well, that's just fantastic."

"...That was sarcasm, again, wasn't it?"

"Good dog."

War Rock growled. "Keep in mind - this is two human brains it has had the chance to access. Pray that the second is not that much more intelligent than the first victim last night."

"Well, maybe," Subaru answered. "I don't see how, though."

Perhaps in an attempt to justify itself, the Jamming flung its arms toward Subaru, unleashing both of its vulcans. _"Jamming Machine Gun!"_

"Whoa, there, Jammy!" Subaru laughed as he leapt to the side, easily dodging the sudden, loose strafe. "Take it easy! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings!"

War Rock, too, had noted the sudden haphazardness of the attack. "Say, RockMan?"

"I mean, come on," Subaru continued, determined to have his fun in recompense for the bone-shattering (well, sort of) punches he had to endure last night. "Take a little aim time, why don't you?"

War Rock was losing his patience. "SUBARU!"

"No need to shout," muttered Subaru, looking down at him. "What is it now?"

"I do not believe he missed his target."

Subaru hesitated, knowing full well he was going to regret this. He looked over his shoulder, where he found the punctured remains of a MoeRoader derezzing into nothing. Okay, so the Jamming had been aiming for the viruses, but what did that... oh, dear. Oh, very, very dear.

_Swarm Mode._

There was a sudden, eerie quiet - the MoeRoaders had gone still, even the background puttering of their onboard, flame-spouting engines having disappeared. As one, every manic grin lifted itself from the feeding frenzy at the rifts of the end of this world. As one, every lunatic smile watched their fallen member die, its data floating upwards and disappearing. There were scores of the monsters, all watching, all waiting. In an instant, the flood would burst and they would all bear down upon them.

One glance at the motionless, uncaring Jamming told Subaru everything - he was going to wait there, uncaring, perhaps even antagonizing the Mettorio and Meramanders, all in incredible spite. Subaru and War Rock had wandered too far in - they were trapped by a living wall of monsters, all of whose ill will was directed unilaterally at the monstrosity behind him, who felt no pain and would not, _could not_ die. And dead between these opposite malices were Subaru and War Rock.

"_Wave Out_," Subaru said quickly, hoping he could reverse the process that had brought him here.

To his incredible dismay, the dying world remained around him, now filled with the Jamming's laugh. _"This world is _ours_,"_ it hissed, its mouthless face practically radiating spite. _"We control its _every detail_."_

"Subaru, what should we do?" asked War Rock.

Subaru gulped, shorn of any answer or retort. Damn, that MoeRoader was taking its sweet time. Or maybe it was just himself, who had understood all this in an instant and was taking his own sweet time to realize it. No way could they fight their way out, with what they had on board. There was just no way out.

_"No way out? If only I had five zenny for every time I've been through that."_

Subaru blinked. Around him, the world had become not only quiet, but unmoving. What was once a world drained of brightness was now a world drained of color. He whipped his head around, back and forth. Before him, the still not dead MoeRoader was lying there, its data hanging above it, also frozen.

"War Rock?" said Subaru. "Did you do something?"

"Nothing," answered the alien, surprise clearly evident. "Did we do something unconsciously together?"

There was a peal of laughter. "That would be cool if you did, but I'm afraid not."

Subaru whirled around, hearing the voice behind him.

"Hi, there! Take it easy, don't be frightened."

Subaru's body was turned in the direction of the control console, but his eyes were drawn above it - there was a figure perched easily upon the console and smiling as though he hadn't a care in the world. "Howdy! You're... RockMan, right?"

"Who are you?" demanded War Rock. "What is your business here?"

"Take it easy, big guy," laughed the figure. "I mean you no harm. In fact, I'm here to help."

* * *

...And here's Chapter 3 - sorry if it cuts off a tad sharply, I couldn't figure any other way to bring an end to it without going on and on.

Changes: Well, besides renaming MoeRodas as "MoeRoaders" (Japanese attempts at English can get a tad confusing, such as getting "Cygnus" out of "Kigunasu"), not much. Mettorios remain such, though there's a bit of MoeRoader action in the next chapter.

Oh, and the good doctor has a very poor sense of dramatic irony. You get points in my book if you can figure out who he is (if you want to use the name proper, use it in a PM, not a review - if you are so inclined).

I apologize for this being so late - I was being very busy, and I couldn't figure out how to transition from Luna's and Kizamaro's search for the Great Tonkatsu-lover to anything else for the longest time, nevermind the call of the Real World. Chapter 4 is in the works, and it shouldn't take half a year this time. (:P)

Check for updates before the month is out.

Ride On!


	4. The Stranger

Subaru found himself unable to move, not because he had been frozen, but due to a great hesitation in his heart - and, _wow_, did it ever feel weird to think that. So far, at least, he hadn't died at the Stranger's hand - which was perhaps the best thing he could hope for. Frankly, Subaru found himself not entirely sure what to think - not least, among other things, because he couldn't tell whether the Stranger was ally or enemy. The Stranger came in human form, though he was clad in a marked blue catsuit and helmet, not entirely unlike Subaru's. The closest comparison Subaru could make to the experience was that it was like meeting one of the fair folk.

"Who are you?" he repeated War Rock's question. "Are you some kind of NetNavi?"

Rather than answer, the Stranger smiled brightly, cheerful green eyes gleaming. "In something of a tight spot, huh?"

Subaru paused, quirking an eyebrow. "Not at all. Little kicking, little screaming, things'll work out just fine."

"Screaming always works," War Rock agreed plainly, nodding his head up and down (and dragging Subaru's arm with it).

This elicited quite the laugh from the Stranger. "Well, can't say your spirit's been broken, can I?"

With a small "hup", the Stranger slipped off of the console and strolled towards Subaru. "Well, unbroken spirit's are good, but, from the look of things, you could use something of a boost, hmm? Doesn't matter how gutsy you are if you haven't got the strength to take advantage of it."

"What about it?" said Subaru. "Do you want something from us?"

The Stranger refused to rid himself of his smile. "Not in the slightest. Well, besides that you keep doing what you're doing. Nah, I came here to give you something. Word from up top says you could use this."

The Stranger - whatever and whoever he was - raised his hand, palm up between them. Just above it, there appeared a small glimmer of light, which grew slowly into a great shine - in an instant, floating just off of the palm was a Force Card of some kind, twirling slowly on an invisible axis.

"This Weapon Card is for you, RockMan. Take it. It should help you. For a while, at least."

Subaru reached for it, when out of nowhere War Rock's head whipped forward and clamped onto Subaru's wrist. It didn't hurt, well, not besides a light sting, but it was noticed nonetheless.

"What's wrong with you, War Rock?" demanded Subaru.

"I might well ask you the same question, Suba- RockMan! Have you not realized how risky this is?"

Subaru paused, and looked back at the Stranger.

"He's got a point," said the Stranger, still wearing his smile.

Subaru looked down at the "Weapon Card", which looked not unlike a Battle Card, except for the picture and some text - the main image was of a long blue cylinder, with one end tiered off into several darkening segments. He mused over the Force Card for a moment, and then turned to a clearly irate War Rock.

"Well, let's be honest," he said to the alien as he reached for the Force Card. "Things can't really get much worse."

War Rock, while still displeased, seemed to be satisfied by the answer, as he made no objection. Unchallenged, Subaru grasped the Card in his fingers.

Nothing.

"So, uh, how do we use this?" Subaru asked.

The Stranger shrugged, though still remained pleasant. "I dunno - let's face it, we're not exactly in precedented area, here. How do you use the Card Force normally?"

"Well, Battle Cards go /here/," said Subaru, more to himself than anything, as he attempted to insert the card into the flames emanating from War Rock's skull.

_**WARNING. IMPROPER INTERFACE. OPERATION ABORTED.**_

"Well, that didn't work," Subaru muttered, closing the pop-up wavescreen by flicking the corner. "Uh, what should I do?"

The Stranger laughed. "I'm afraid I don't know. And if I had any ideas, I'm afraid you wouldn't get them.

"Uh oh," he added, blinking in mild surprise, perhaps at some epiphany. "I gotta get going."

"Wait, you!" cried War Rock, as the figure turned and began to walk away. "WAIT!"

Something told Subaru that the Stranger wouldn't listen. That same something told Subaru to turn around.

Life was returning to the ES. Little circles of color were blossoming across the gray field, shining light upwards - while not particularly bright in the first place, their dim color was made all the more stark against the frozen grayness of the waning moment. Subaru's gaze immediately returned to the MoeRoader, lying, half-dissolved, still bearing its madman grin. He looked up slightly and saw the hanging data - the particles had resumed wafting upwards and outwards into nothing. And they were accelerating.

Subaru looked over his shoulder, and was startled by how unsurprising it was that he discovered that the Stranger had completely disappeared. Subaru again tried to insert the Weapon Card, only to find the increasingly frustrating Error message.

_**WARNING. IMPROPER INTERFACE. OPERATION ABORTED.**_

"Well, screw you," Subaru retorted, forcibly closing the pop-up wavescreen by stabbing his fist through it. "War Rock, any ideas?"

"None," growled War Rock, whose ire was easily as great as Subaru's.

Growling, Subaru glared fiercely at the useless Force Card, and at the little picture it had - still the long, blue cylinder... No, wait.

Not a cylinder. A _barrel_.

"War Rock, your head's a weapon, right?"

"I do not believe it's changed its function in the moments I wasn't looking. Why?"

Subaru looked back at the card and something stirred within him. Suddenly, the blank edge of the card gleamed bright, revealing new text. Two words.

_Predation._ The word ran through his mind so simply and easily it was almost startling.

"Subaru, is something wrong? Why are you smiling like that?"

Whatever was stirring within him was raising in temper and motion. "I've just had an idea, that's all. Open wide!"

Subaru took a deep breath, and then, guided by this strange motion, tossed the Force Card up into the air.

_"Predation: Weapon Card!"_

The same pulse of energy ran suddenly through War Rock, who opened his maw and in one motion, consumed the shining Force Card.

_"Rock Arm Modify: _EXE Blaster!_"_

There was a flash of light - when it cleared, Subaru examined what it left behind: in place of War Rock's eternal scowl, Subaru found the strange cannon from the Force Card, as though it had been grafted there.

"How you feeling, big guy?"

"Magnificent!" War Rock's voice emanated from the Blaster, and, as a bonus, without the slightest hint of displeasure. "This weapon is incredible!"

"Glad to hear it," said Subaru. "I have an idea how we're gonna use it."

There was a sudden sound of thunder, and Subaru could only grin, sharing in the infectious madness of a hundred MoeRoaders bent on slaughter.

_"Prepare to die, War Rock the Traitor!"_ The Jamming, too, had returned to life. _"You will die here!"_

"Oh, shut up," muttered Subaru. "EXE Blaster!"

The Blaster unleashed a sudden torrent of miniature bolts, a vulcan of light, slicing through the Jamming's waist with surgical precision. There was but an instant of silence, and then Subaru and War Rock burst into hearty laughter. "Oh, this is so gonna rock."

_"H-Halt!"_ cried the Jamming, suddenly lacking its certainty. _"Cease! Jamming Machine Gun!"_

The Jamming unleashed a barrel of its vulcan, but its bolts passed harmlessly through space RockMan was no longer occupying.

"Up here, handsome," called Subaru from atop the console. "EXE Blaster!"

Again the weapon fired, this time straight down - directly through the core console.

And then all hell broke loose - exactly as Subaru had foreseen. The core program had been torn through, it's fragmented remnants losing the ability to support the world around them. The whole ES began to tremble in anticipation of its own Armageddon - from the rifts in the floor there suddenly issued a massive scream, and the holes were suddenly expanding, oozing gashes in a dying world. And suddenly it was no longer a matter of MoeRoaders, but Mettorios and Meramanders, too - Pandemonium Come.

Subaru looked down towards the Jamming, which had begun to, bizarrely, crawl towards the onslaught, perhaps a futile attempt at the exit. "Keep on rocking, Jammer; I'll see you later!"

_"Halt!"_

Subaru leapt away, shooting forward through the hysteria, clearing away paths through the viruses by slicing through them with the Blaster. "Wow, I'm liking this new toy."

A sudden burst of Meramander flame made Subaru dodge aside, quickly tucking himself into a roll before running the hapless creature through with the Blaster. Beyond it, Subaru saw another get consumed by the scream of energy from one of the rifts.

Hmm. Avoid those.

Subaru looked ahead, back towards the entrance of the zone - still there, still waiting. His goal in sight, Subaru risked a glance back.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

The Jamming had finished crawling - indeed it wasn't moving in any particular direction. It was far more interested in the prey it had just caught - its hand was thrust brutally through the face of a hapless MoeRoader, whose engine was screaming in what was easily mistakeable for agony. And then it happened - the Jamming hoisted itself up and then brought itself down onto the virus. The mutilated lower end of the Jamming immediately stabbed down onto the ruined engine, and the screaming suddenly stopped. Indeed, Subaru could hear only one thing - The Jamming had begun to laugh. A sick, mad laugh, lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere between the scream of overworked machinery and the growl of white static. Strands of the Jamming's ruin slid down into the engine, and then somehow, impossibly, they blended. One ceased to end and the other ceased to begin, like some horrific melting. The Jamming had fused itself to the MoeRoader (with a dull thud of his heart, Subaru wondered if that had been the plan all along).

"Hey, now, that's cheating."

The Jamming spun around once, testing out its new locomotion, and then it paused, its back to him. Slowly, so very slowly, the neck of the Jamming revolved on its axis, like some hideous owl, but with a difference - the guant face of the Jamming was no longer blank. Stretching from one end to the other was the same murderous grin of the MoeRoader.

"Die," hissed the Jamming, its new mouth opening wide to reveal something black and red inside. The MoeRoader shrieked, and suddenly the Jamming was shooting forward.

"Subaru?" said War Rock. "I would like to leave now."

Subaru spun around and rocketed toward the portal.

"You cannot escape," hissed a voice behind him - Subaru looked over his shoulder and saw the Jamming gaining on them, its forward momentum completely unimpeded. With a massive sweep of its arms, the Jamming batted aside a small group of viruses, the ones not deleted by the initial impact being consumed in midair by the ever growing scream of energy. As it moved, a particularly violent swing caused the Jamming to twirl on its axis, its speed lessening not a fraction.

"Never underestimate a man's ability to run for his life!" cried Subaru, his indefatigable snark perhaps a tad inapropos to the moment. "EXE Blaster!"

Subaru fired another volley, only managing to slice through the Jamming's cheek.

Crap. He'd been aiming for the neck.

_"Jamming Machine Gun!"_

A stream of vulcan fire hissed past Subaru's face, so fierce and so close that Subaru felt one slice his own cheek in kind - if War Rock hadn't yanked him aside, well, Subaru wouldn't really have to worry anymore. Subaru curled into a roll to dodge a sudden, squealing MoeRoader, and then leapt forward. Almost there.

It happened so suddenly Subaru hadn't realized what was going on until he had been plucked off the floor - the Jamming had put on a burst of speed, its full tilt bringing it side by side with Subaru. And then there was a sudden, black blur, pain, and then the ground. He clutched at his chest, vision spinning, heart pounding, lungs coughing up what tasted a lot like blood. He moaned in pain as something - a hand - closed around his neck, hoisting him into the air, and the world swam about him, all in motion, all in chaos.

_"Cornered vermin to the very end,"_ hissed the Jamming, a stream of smoke snaking out between its teeth. _"Your treason ends tonight, War Rock the Craven."_ It brought its transformed vulcan arm up towards Subaru's head, the individual barrels begining to rotate. _"Fear not. This is to be far more merciful a sentence then what was awaiting you back on FM. Be glad Lord Taurus sent me."_

"By the great lanterns of heaven, you are an idiot," muttered War Rock. "I'm down here."

The Jamming hissed and whipped its head down, just in time to see the Blaster, of its own accord, rise and fire a stream of light through its abdomen. There was a moment's pause, and then the Jamming hissed again. _"Was that supposed to hurt us?"_

"You are not nearly so worth my time. I was aiming back there. You were just a bonus."

The Jamming's head whirled backwards so quickly War Rock was mildly surprised it didn't completely unscrew - just in time to see the last of the shining vulcan pierce and shatter the fragmented core - completely annihilating any hold on order. The ruined E.S. in one instant dissolved into formless, chaotic energy, a shriek of power that consumed all before it. The Jamming relinquished its grip, and War Rock saw, in one blinding moment, the diminishing light of the exit.

There was one thought. One choice.

**MOVE.**

And then the Jamming smashed its fist into RockMan's chest, hurling him back into the scream.

* * *

Luna couldn't help but stare as the monster emerged from the wreckage of the car, stripping metal scraps off of itself as easily as dead skin. And then, seizing the rent frame of the cab, the monster twisted, and ripped the vehicle apart with a noise of shrieking metal, freeing itself. Luna clutched the back of Dr. Hikari's coat. "Wh-what is that thing?"

Dr. Hikari gave a thin smile. This, he hadn't been expecting. "I think it's what was driving the car just now." With teeth, now. Sharp teeth.

Luna outright squeaked as the monster turned toward them, its head revolving on its neck like a top as it surveyed the area. She quickly flipped open her Transer to see if she could send some kind of S.O.S., only to find her Transer's screen a mess of static. She couldn't shake the feeling that it was because of the monster. "Doctor, what do we do?"

The creature discovered them before the doctor had a chance to answer, and puttered over, balanced remarkably atop what Luna recognized as what was once a MoeRoader virus; much to her surprise, besides the bizarreness of the creature being here in the real world, Luna wasn't at all put out by it - after the boy and the Heat Ball, she wasn't all that shocked, to be honest.

"Who are you and what do you want?" said Dr. Hikari quietly, startling Luna back into the world around her. She saw his face set in a serious line as it looked up at the monster, unflinching at the wicked grimace.

The Jamming crackled, looming a full two feet over the Doctor (who, to his credit, was hardly short at six feet), it's arms spread wide and menacingly. _"We are Jamming. We came to take this world. You will help us."_

"And what if I say 'no'?" posed Dr. Hikari. Luna, who had no idea from where this man's courage came, couldn't help but feel a smidgeon of it flow into her - she found herself standing perhaps a little more surely on her own two feet.

_"Then we will take you, too."_

The Jamming suddenly twisted, its fist shot forward - in the same instant, the Doctor had tilted his head aside, the Jamming's massive, cinderblock fist passing not a single inch away from his left cheek. "No, thanks. Luna, run!"

Luna squeaked as the man grabbed ahold of her shoulder and forcefully shoved her away, making her drop his briefcase by accident. She didn't bother to question him this time, running full pelt down the street. As she reached the corner, she glanced over her shoulder to see Dr. Hikari leaping away to dodge another blow aimed at his chest, in great and heinous spite of his supposedly only-slightly-damaged leg.

He landed easily and turned back to the monster, only to find himself looking at the hurtling black cinderblock of the monster's fist.

Luna shrieked as the doctor was thrown high into the air from the impact of the monster's fist, only to be caught on his way down by the other, smashing down onto the asphault with an ugly crunch.

_"Perhaps not you,"_ hissed the Jamming, looming over the doctor. _"You would give us too much trouble."_

It turned, wheeling easily around the body to find Luna staring at her fallen comrade. _"You, however, might prove useful. No will to resist us."_

Luna startled up, her eyes shooting back to the Jamming. She backed away slowly, her face pale. "N-No! Go away!"

She turned on her heel and ran, only to see a blur of brown and black pass her suddenly on the right - in an instant, the Jamming was before her, and so very horribly close.

_"We will not go away,"_ hissed the Jamming._ "And soon you will not want us to."_

Luna gulped once or twice, finding her eyes compelled to look upwards at the monster's face, at the robotic, glowing red eyes that radiated malice and want - and then her whole body felt suddenly went very, very cold. It was like she had been locked into her head - her arms and legs obstinately refused to move, and not for lack of trying. Had

_"Do not struggle, human. You cannot flee the Jamming."_

Luna didn't answer. She couldn't answer - her entire body was cold and growing colder. She felt a great numbness settle in her body, spreading her bones to her skin. Her legs went numb first, and she would have crumpled onto the floor if the Jamming hadn't seized her head and hoisted her a yards into the air. Luna was sure she would have screamed if she could still feel pain, but the only thing she felt was a sweet lightheadedness settling in on her.

_"Prepare yourself, human. We will take you."_

Luna would have accepted the outcome then and there, but something was holding her back. Perhaps it was the intense revulsion at that something lurking in the Jamming's eyes, that it perhaps didn't realize itself, or maybe it was the image of the doctor lying in the street flashing in her mind, but whatever it was, it was the one thing keeping her awake.

Motionless, helpless, but awake. And all she could do was pray for someone to come help. Anyone.

Please.

Luna began to feel something, several somethings, small and slimy and wriggling, extend from the Jamming's fingers, slithering across her face and scalp, made all the more nauseating by being the one thing she could feel. _"Now,"_ whispered the Jamming, with the closest thing to enjoyment it had ever expressed. _"Let us begin."_

"Let's not and say we didn't."

There was a sudden silence, perhaps only in Luna's mind, as she watched the following events unfold. Her eyes, rooted as they were to the Jamming's, could only see what happened in their corners - where something blue, something warm, something laughing, erupted from her Transer towards the monster, which had also been stunned by the sudden, shining light.

"Long Sword!"

The Jamming cried out in shock and what remained of its human fear as the shining blue light surged past, taking as its toll the Jamming's entire left arm, freeing Luna to haphazardly flop onto the floor, a moment accompanied by Luna realizing she'd had the feeling back in her legs, to judge from the pain coming from her probably bloody knee. Hissing and spluttering, the Jamming whirled around. "What is this?"

"This?" laughed Subaru, feeling more exhilirated than he had in years. "This is _payback_. CANNON!"

In an instant, the blade had been replaced with the massive, angular barrel of the new Card. The Jamming, still trying to reconcile itself with suddenly missing an arm, failed to react in time to dodge the sudden impact against its chest, and was knocked flat onto its back, its unicycular replacement unable to brace itself as a pair of legs could have.

"How?" demanded the Jamming, struggling to right itself.

"For future reference, the next time you want to kill me, make sure you're there to see it done. And the internet is probably not the best choice for a setting," added Subaru, with a very self-satisfied grin. "'Cause, y'know, it's _everywhere_."

The Jamming hissed and pushed off of the ground with its remaining hand, shooting back upright before morphing it into a vulcan and unleashing its spray. "Die! Jamming Machine Gun!"

"No, thanks," said Subaru, diving forward under the spray of vulcan shots which whizzed by overhead, tearing into the asphault behind them. "Plasma Gun!"

The brief burst of static smashed into the Jamming's chest point blank, freezing it - Subaru quickly summoned a new draw of Battle Cards as he passed near to Luna again. "Howdy. Sorry about him, he gets cranky unless he has his coffee."

Luna gaped at him, her mouth petulently refusing to form words. The Stranger before her grinned. "Tell you what, let's get you out of harms' way." And then, without so much an "excuse me", Luna found herself again being hoisted up in the character's arms. In an instant, she was back on the roof. Happily, she had just discovered her voice.

"And where on EARTH have you been?" she screamed at him. "Cutting it kind of close, don't you think?"

Subaru smiled a little as he returned to the street, the sounds of Luna's ire echoing in his ears, loading the next Battle Card just as the Jamming came free of its sudden paralysis - it wasted no time in discharging another burst of its vulcan, thin needles of light that stabbed through the air and street. Subaru dodged aside, firing an Air Spread, which pulled an audible grunt from the Jamming.

Good.

"So, remind me," called Subaru, dodging as the Jamming zoomed close and attempted to drive it's fist through the blue warrior's head. "You Jammer types can't die, right? How sure are you that you weren't just lucky?"

As if to punctuate his point, Subaru summoned another Cannon and unleashed the blast directly where the Jamming had fused to the MoeRoader - the virus half of the fusion shrieked in dismay as a massive hole was punched through the left half of its face.

_"We transcend deletion,"_ hissed the Jamming. _"We transcend death. And we will _continue_. Jamming Wheelburn!"_

Subaru really figured he ought to have foreseen it. He had dared too close to the juggernaut and paid - the MoeRoader shrieked in glee as its wheel burst into sudden flame. There was a squeal, and then the ring of fire exploded forward, ripping a gash through Subaru's side. Subaru gasped in crippling pain, suddenly defenseless against the Jamming's fist. _"Jamming Punch!"_

It felt as though Subaru had tried to stop a speeding car with his skull - the cinderblock of curled fingers smashed into his head with enough force to put a dent in a two-foot slab of steel. Subaru wasn't so much lifted off of the ground as he was rocketed into the air from the impact. Stunned, he was merciless against the Jamming's second wind - he barely managed to gain an idea of his surroundings as he plummeted to the ground, only to see something black and huge zoning in on him like a polaris missile.

Luna shrieked and clasped her hands to her mouth as she saw the Jamming's fist catch its second target in mid-air and smash him into the sreet. She felt a sudden wave of nausea at the blend of crunch and thud that heralded the new crater. In one motion, the Jamming reached down and grasped Subaru's weaponized arm, lifting both he and War Rock safely aloft. "Hmm. Your human host is surprisingly resilient, War Rock the Traitor. Perhaps we shall take him for our own."

Subaru groaned, his head swimming in what felt like lava. Slowly, the pain began to clear, first revealing the shadowed form of the great juggernaut holding him aloft and secondly revealing increasingly frenzied voices.

"Rockman! Rockman! You must wake up! Please, wake up!"

Whatever Subaru had intended to say in reply was left unsaid, replaced with a grunt of pain as the Jamming smashed him again into the floor before lifting him into the air. _"Yes, child. Wake up. We would like you to see this."_

Subaru wheezed in agony, hacking up more of what tasted suspiciously like blood. The taste of blood made something stir, and while it was not perhaps the clearest of thought, Subaru was still mildly thankful for his growing awareness - the voices he'd been hearing were clearer, at least. He could recognize War Rock growling at him, and with a start he realized he could hear Luna pleading for him to rise as well. His vision remained obscured, not in part due to the massive system of cracks along the Visor. Something in his mind quivered, a plan, an idea - if only he could just /see/.

Wait.

The Jamming was not to be left out of the noise. _"We wonder how to proceed. Perhaps we should rip the two of you apart now? Or perhaps we should just kill you first - the creature of denpa abandons its host upon its destruction, you know._"

"Thank you for sharing," spat Subaru. "Recovery 10!"

This last futile attempt did nothing but cause the Jamming to pause, and then to laugh maliciously. _"And what will that do? Do you seek the oppertunity to feel more pain?"_

"Nope," said Subaru, the makings of a grin spreading across his face. "I just wanted to get a good look at you."

The Jamming paused, almost bewildered, and WarRock, for his part, was much the same - it was Luna who first realized what had happened: RockMan's shattered visor had been restored.

_"So you would die with good vision?"_ hissed the Jamming. _"Very well, then. Allow us to pluck your eyes ou-"_

The Jamming's voice caught in its throat, as indeed the rest of its sentence - the boy it held aloft had shoved his own fist into the Jamming's open mouth, choking it.

"Heat Ball!" ordered Subaru, finally reaching the last Card he'd chosen - in his hand blossomed another orange sphere, and Subaru only barely managed to slip his hand back out before the ball expanded to its full size and completely filled the monster's mouth, secured in place by the inward-hooked fangs the Jamming had grown when it had fused with the MoeRoader. Not missing a beat, Subaru twisted, kicking his feet hard into the Jamming's chest, freeing himself and launching backwards into the air.

Uninterrupted, Subaru flipped his body over and took aim. "EXE Blaster!"

Shining bullets of light exploded from the weapon, slicing cleanly through the Jamming, and, as Subaru had planned, through the Heat Ball.

* * *

"Inspector Goyouda, I, uh... we..."

"Spit it out, man!"

"We've... uh, we've lost the signal."

"You WHAT? How could you lose the signal? We just got here! What, did the car just disappear?"

"Well, uh, no, sir. The entire system's gone buggy. None of the communication systems work, either."

"Even the radio?"

"Especially the radio, sir."

"...Fantastic. Well, where was it headed?"

"Well, uh, sir, at least, uh, I don't know-"

"Nevermind, blast it. Where was it last?"

"Just off of Harmony! ...I think."

"Well-"

The conversation was suddenly cut short - interrupted, even - as the two officers in the admittedly speeding enforcement vehicle (damned convoluted surface streets) paused to witness something of a small, low-hung fireworks display that was short on art but long on BOOM. The inspector turned to the lieutenant, who had almost forgotten he was driving.

"Found it."

* * *

Luna stared down at the street, where the boy - RockMan - was panting and clutching at his wounded side, gazing up at the remnant of the Jamming. The Heat Ball had done its work - the Jamming that rose before them would no longer count its head as a contribution to its height. And yet it remained upright, balanced easily on the MoeRoader's wheel - its hands were frozen in mid-air, clutching at where its mouth would have been. They were doomed to failure, as the Jamming's head had been not only destroyed, but vaporized down to the shoulders.

Slowly, so slowly neither Subaru, War Rock, or Luna could pick up on it at first, the arms began to droop, after a moment simply falling limp. The Jamming's body began to droop forward, too, but the MoeRoader wheel it now balanced had no lock - Subaru yelped and dodged as the corpse came crashing down. It lay still for a moment, and then Subaru began to see faint trails of some kind of vapor rising up into the wind with a light hiss. No, not vapor - the Jamming's body was pixellating - its body shedding waves and waves of the small points of light and color to reveal some kind of formless, glowing mass. When the last fragment - even of the Jamming-Roader - had disappeared, the mass shifted, and then stretched.

The shape it took was so bizarre that it took Subaru a moment to realize it had reformed into the shape of a human being - an effect heightened by the light's diminishing into natural human tones - who was sprawled drunkenly on the asphault, completely oblivious.

"Aha," muttered Subaru. "So there _was_ a car thief."

The man, short, fat, and balding, didn't seem like he was in the mood to do much besides lay there for the moment, so Subaru turned his attention to Luna, who had gone very still atop the building.

"Need a hand?" called Subaru, feeling relieved enough to extend a little goodwill to the girl.

"Wh-what about you?" Luna stuttered, pointing a shaking finger at him.

Subaru blinked in confusion, not at first sure of what she was going on about - and then he remembered he had a massive gash in his side. He wasn't entirely sure what freaked him out further: the fact that, if he were still merely human, he would be dead, or the fact that he felt absolutely no pain from it past the initial moment of injury.

"Here," said War Rock after a moment, summoning a new draw of Cards. "Would any of these work?"

Subaru looked down. "These are fine." Two _Recovery 30s_ later, and he patted his regrown flank reassuringly (whether for himself or Luna, he wasn't sure). "That's better."

He turned back to Luna, and in a sudden bound, he had sprung up to the roof and was suddenly beside her. "So, need that hand?"

Luna blinked as he offered her his hand, and then, almost without thinking, took it. She was pulled gently onto her feet, and then there was a sudden, momentary rush as the young man leapt back down to the sidewalk, holding her securely.

"You can, uh, let go of me, now."

Luna blinked a second time, realized she'd wrapped her arms around the young man's neck, and then squeaked and jumped away, her face bright and shining red. "S-sorry."

Subaru wasn't entirely sure why, but he was suddenly particularly grateful for the fact that the Visor obscured his face. "N-No problem. Are you hurt?"

Luna shook her head perhaps a tad more vigorously than was needed. "N-No, not at all," she murmured. "Umm... Thank you for saving me."

Subaru cleared his throat awkwardly. His head was beginning to throb. Maybe that Jamming had smashed his head a tad harder than he thought. "Well, just don't expect it to be too often. I have enough trouble looking out for myself, let alone the local populace."

Luna made a muffled little noise, one Subaru would later learn to associate with whenever he'd said something stupid. "Look, you, I said 'Thank You.' The PROPER response would be a pleasant or at the very least _plain_ 'You're welcome.' NOT a smarmy little wannabe line."

"Wannabe?" demanded Subaru, almost instantly falling back into being defensive. "Hey, did you happen to miss the last two minutes? I creamed that thing! I'd like to see you do that."

"Sadly, I'm afraid I haven't got that power," Luna retorted with a mocking air. "But if I did, I'm willing to bet I could do it without getting myself into a situation where I'd need to blow it up! Again!"

War Rock was finding himself very much impressed with the human female. In the space of only a few sentences, she'd managed to put Subaru on an energetic defensive not once, but twice. "What is it with you and the explosions? Everything turned out fine, didn't it?"

"You got lucky, Hot Shot. A bit off course, and you could've burned down the neighborhood, along with anyone who might've been locked in their houses from their security protocols! Did that ever once enter your head?"

War Rock remained silent throughout the exchange, though he did return the Rock Buster to its original state, reverting the cannon to his head. He suddenly wished he had some of that human entertainment food, even if he couldn't properly eat it. What had Daigo called it? Popcorn?

"Funnily enough, PRINCESS, if I hadn't done anything, you wouldn't be around to bug me about it. I think I deserve at least a little credit for that!"

Luna gave him a look. "And you had it! Right up until you decided to remind me you were just a wannabe punk with a superhero complex. And on another note, call me 'Princess' at your peril."

Subaru was growing more and more agitated. "Wannabe? I kicked that thing's ass, I saved your life, and I'm a wannabe?"

"Yes!" answered Luna, with something rather close to self-enjoyment creeping into her expression. "And with a poor vocabulary, to boot!"

"Poor vocabulary?" demanded Subaru in exasperation. "Tell me, are we just going to sit around here criticising me all day?"

"We aren't sitting around here criticising you," Luna said simply, a superior smirk curling across her face. "We're _standing_ around here criticising you. Especially your idiot fighting style."

"Idiot fight-" Subaru gaped. "Listen, you - if it wasn't for me and my idiot fighting style, you wouldn't be here to whine about it!"

"Uh huh," answered Luna unconcernedly. "That doesn't mean its not an idiot fighting style. Ditch the superpowers and I'll show you just how stupid it is."

Subaru grinned mockingly. "Uh huh. Sure you want to dirty your manicure, Prin-"

Subaru was unable to finish his sentence, because his jaw was promptly slammed shut by Luna's sudden left hook - this one deliberate. "I'm sorry," she said, having slipped into a light fighting stance. "I didn't catch that last part."

Subaru made a muffled noise, something rather close to "Merf!" He found himself again rather grateful for the opacity of his Visor, as he was almost assuredly making a heinously ridiculous expression as he tried to fight down the pain from having nearly chomped into his tongue.

"Is he always like this?" Luna asked, turning down to the fierce face that had replaced the cannon-arm.

"Well, it is something of an improvement, I must admit," answered War Rock. "Last night, he was almost panicking when we fought the Jamming-creature for the first time."

"Oho~!" said Luna, her smirk gaining an edge of triumph. "So you're a moron AND a newbie."

Subaru growled at War Rock, having come back to his senses. "I don't need you giving her material."

"True," admitted War Rock. "You do that well enough on your own."

"Are we done here?" demanded Subaru, officially done with the whole thing. "I mean, as fantastic as it is getting insulted left and right, I could probably put my talents to better use elsewhere, like going to bed. At least the pillows don't criticise me for having a moron sleeping style."

"What about the sheets?"

Subaru growled in annoyance, and opened his mouth to say something - only to shut it again. He took a deep breath and then spoke. "Look. I'm tired, and feeling, well, rather put out about being insulted like this. I'm sorry I'm not ideal," he continued, struggling to keep the sarcasm down, "but I'm still new to all of this. If you don't like it, that's your business." He sighed, pausing for a moment before finishing. "And I'll see what I can do about not burning down the neighborhood."

"Good," said Luna, so matter-of-factly that Subaru almost immediately shot back into an angry snarl. "See that you do. And, h-hey, RockMan-san?" she added, actually blushing a little. "I _am_ grateful, you know."

This last part was so soft that Subaru almost hadn't heard it, but it made him pause - he had originally been planning to leave before she finished speaking. He stared at her for a few moments, unsure of what to say to that, but then he smiled. A hair. "You're welcome."

"Sorry to interrupt the moment," said a new voice, "but if either of you have a second, would you mind helping us figure out who blew up the car?"

Subaru stiffened, his head turning ever so slowly to wear the voice had come from.

Leaning nonchalantly against the door of his cruiser, Inspector Goyouda Heiji looked bemusedly at the pair - after a moment of stunned silence he stuffed a hand in the pocket of his coat and drew out his old smoke pipe. In a moment, a thin trail of smoke was wafting up and into the air; he sucked on the tail-end of the pipe for a second before waving out the match and flicking it away to join the pile of debris, returning the matchbox to his pocket. That done, and no particular answers forthcoming from the stunned pair, who, to their credit, had probably never seen a patrol signal before, to judge from the way they were staring at the small aerial rising from his hair, he stepped over towards them, his shoes crunching against the gravel and broken glass.

"Look, kids, I'm not gonna hurt you. Satellite Police Inspector Goyouda Heiji, at your service," he introduced himself, summoning the Satellite Police insignia from his black, enforcement-grade Transer. Personally, he missed the days where he could bring out his wallet and flip the badge, but _nooooo_, Transers were the order of the day. "All I want are some answers."

He turned to the boy, who looked a few years older than the girl behind him, despite his... odd choice of attire. "So, Kamen Rider, enlighten me. What exactly happened here?"

Now, the Inspector had seen many things in his life, and had the gray hairs to prove it - burglary, arson, murder, rape, he'd even been to war - but what he had most certainly NOT seen before was a young man springing easily to the top of a nearby roof and then away out of sight. At least, not in real life.

"Hey! Hey!" cried the Inspector, nearly dropping his pipe. "Come back here, damnit!"

It wouldn't work, it never had, but it was protocol.

"Well, so much for that. At least we have an idea who our explosives expert is. Did any of you catch that?" he called back over to the squad members who'd been summoned, many of whom were just now arriving - the communication functions of the squad cars had been restored immediately after that explosion, for whatever reason - and surveying the damage, several with mildly impressed expressions. "Hmph. Rookies. Well, the blue costume and spikehawk should be easy enough to recognize."

"Wait!" demanded the girl. "He was only trying to stop the car!"

The inspector looked over his shoulder at the wreckage of the former vehicle. "Well, I can't say he doesn't finish what he starts. That said-"

"Yeah, I know, it was stupid," Luna sighed. "I told him that, too."

"You his girlfriend?"

Luna squeaked, face turning beet red. "N-No! Certainly not! We met ten minutes ago!"

"Uh huh." The inspector paused, turning away to breathe out a ring of smoke. He watched the simple little shape float up into the air for a moment, before returning his attention to the girl. "So, passing over Kamen Rider for a moment, did this car have any passengers before... Well, we'll just leave it at 'before'."

"Inspector! Inspector Goyouda!"

"Yes, lieutenant?" He struggled to keep the ire in his voice down, as the lieutenant sounded more urgent than overexcited.

"Look who we've found!"

Goyouda sauntered over to where the squad had gathered. "Well, well, look who it is. Breaking parole, are we now? Not smart, that."

The man who had emerged from the Jamming's headless corpse was still laying sprawled acoss the floor, though he was showing the beginnings of stirring. And then, his eyes shot open, soon followed by his mouth. "HELP ME! It's after me!"

Goyouda had to plant his feet to keep from tumbling over back into the small crater as the man seized the edges of his coat - and on that note, the press was going to have a field day with this. "Down, boy! What's after you?"

The man was unable to answer at first, his panic and frenzy garbling his words - it soon became so bad that Goyouda had to wallop him over the head with his Transer (to their credit, these newfangled things were certainly durable). "Now, then, let's try that again."

Luna couldn't help herself - in curiosity, she edged closer to the gathered squad members to find the man shivering and gasping for breath. "It's after me - the monster!"

"Monster?" Goyouda repeated, raising a ragged eyebrow. "I'll admit Kamen Rider is a bit overzealous, but 'monster'?"

Luna gasped, realizing something. "Officer! It wasn't Kamen- (ahem) It wasn't Rockman-san. There /was/ a monster!" And then she froze, eyes widening and stomach churning with a sudden, hideous memory.

How on Earth had she forgotten?

"Hey, where are you going, now?" demanded Goyouda. At least she wasn't leaping across rooftops like Kamen Rider Whatshisname. RockMan, that was it.

He started to chase the girl when she came to abrupt and sudden stop of her own volition, letting out a scream.

"What's wrong, now?" He found Luna staring in horror at the street, more specifically, a small dent - well, small compared to the much larger one on the opposite side of the car. "What is it?"

"Th-there was a man here," Luna managed to squeak out. "He was- at least, I think he was... dead."

Goyouda almost tripped as he caught up to her. "Dead? As in not living anymore?"

Luna gave him a look, which he perhaps deserved, but to his credit, cracks and bullet holes in the street did not necessarily lend themselves as credit to the story of a dead man. Especially when neither the dead man nor even a slight drop of blood were present. Still, Goyouda had seen a lot of liars in his lifetime, and the girls' eyes told him that, however odd it might sound, she wasn't lying. Confused, maybe, but she was the only one who was around to see the action first hand.

"Okay," he sighed, massaging his temples and checking his watch, an old-fashioned, chainlink deal that was the closest thing to an heirloom his family ever had. "Let's try this again. I'm gonna need you to tell me the whole story, Miss."

Luna paused for a moment, and then sighed. Okay, so her schedule was totally in the toilet. Hopefully Kizamaro and Gonta weren't doing anything stupid.

* * *

Amachi Kenkyujou, or rather, AMAKEN, was actually the given name not of a single building, but of a sprawling complex, a good hundred acres of contemporary architecture and fascinating machinery. Visitors who arrived for one of the many tours would first find the open, outdoor walkway, a winding path that would lead them through the doors into the main building of Amaken. As they walked, visitors could pause by the gate to find a plaque that detailed the history of AMAKEN (all seven years); others would find the rim of the property lined with a series of satellite dishes, each pointing upward at the sky - and at the great emptiness beyond. Of a far greater prominence, however, was the massive tower in the center of the grounds - Mamoru, whenever he led tours, would happily point this out, informing his guests that the unique fixture was indeed a retired rocket that had finished its mission. Admittedly, it would never fly again, especially considering that its internal mechanisms from its days as a rocket had largely been abandoned in favor of the new role Mamoru had decided for it. The tower itself had been modified into a broadcast station, about which Mamoru would only say it was like an IM to outer space, and he wondered if somebody out there would send him one back.

Nobody else thought it was much of a good joke, either.

The main building of the complex, somewhat facetiously named "Central Command", was a large facility that rose a good ten stories into the air. The entry way was marked with a large, human-sized, wroughtiron, five-point star, which was admittedly cheesy - it had been a gift from a benefactor, and Mamoru hadn't figured out a good enough excuse to refuse it before it had been installed. Of all the landmarks on the property, however, this one was perhaps the least-visited: for some bizzare reason, whenever people walked by, they found an incredible amount of interference with their Transers. Nothing dangerous, thankfully, but still. Mamoru had no idea what caused it, which perhaps contrubuted to the mock-legend of the Cursed Star.

The main building itself was impressive to behold - from the outside, one would see a large run of angled, tinted glass planes running along the center portion of the building, supported on either side by far sturdier architecture. The roof was primarily also glass, a large, semi-cylindrical structure running from one edge of the supporting architecture to the other - atop the western side, a massive satellite dish had been installed, aimed upwards, like its younger brothers. The interior of the facility was divided into several main sections - the only one the public need worry about was the ground floor, which was dedicated largely to the Museum of Aeronautical History, which had gained a great deal of popularity for surprisingly low costs for adults and free entry for children (and AMAKEN was surprisingly generous on what defined "children" at the ticket booth).

Besides that, there were a few other notable sections of the complex - the eastern section was dominated by a massive building that was, for all intents and purposes, a rocket design, construction, and maintenance center, which, from six in the morning to ten at night, emitted constant noise of chains and furnaces and engines. AMAKEN had settled itself into something of a curious niche as a privately-owned Aerospace operation, funded naturally by generous donors, primarily, and curiously enough, by the Wave Battle Association - the story, according to public knowledge, was that AMAKEN's head director, Amachi Mamoru himself, had more than a passing interest in Wave Battle, a not-quite fiction that Amachi wasn't in the mood to dispell for the time being.

AMAKEN - or, as NAS-using countries had... strangely dubbed it, the "Aerospace and Modern Astronomy Knowledge Expansion Nexus" - had sprung up in the wake of the general disgrace that had swamped WAXA following the incident seven years ago - which had gained the somewhat poetic name "The Day Peace Died", thanks not in part to a particularly vicious and mocking editorial that was circulated multiple times over the next few weeks in various newscasts. AMAKEN had gained a fair bit more of the public's trust, due not in part to its penchant to let people in and see some of what they were up to, compared to the until then growing tendency of WAXA to engage in rather conspicuous privacy. Among its many boasts, AMAKEN applied itself to a number of different fields, even outside of straight up aeronautics - a particularly notable instance of this was the production of the Air Display, which, six years after its initial production, remained the leading name-brand of wavescreen. Rumor had it that they had something new and revolutionary in the works, and Amachi Mamoru was determined to keep that rumor as such.

It wasn't that he feared leaks of information - Mamoru made a point to know who was working for him and what they were working on, and he kept a tight control on who knew what; his primary worry was designing something in the first place.

And that was what he'd been so worried about so early this morning - when he'd been interrupted by that strange little, what was it, Denpa-kun. When he'd woken up - okay, when he'd been awoken by his frenzied assistant - he'd completely forgotten about the incident, and would remain ignorant until he'd caught sight of that rough little sketch he'd drawn later in the day.

He wasn't ungrateful for the sudden wake-up call in the least, nor was he mad at the man who woke him - now if only the man would listen to him.

"It's okay, Utagai!" laughed Amachi. "So we're both a little behind schedule today. It's not a problem."

"I'm so sorry!" repeated the man in obvious lament, which was more or less the only thing he'd said for the past ten minutes. "There was the waitress, and the bus, and the schedule-"

Mamoru burst out laughing, a loud, rich laugh that he hadn't given in a long time. "A girl, huh? Well, lucky you. Come on, Utagai, lighten up - no one's hurt and we're both here. Now then, we have to present our idea to the research board in half an hour, so let's get cracking."

The project Mamoru had been so focused on last night (excusing his somewhat impromptu visit to the Hoshikawa household, which was really just an excuse to put off thinking about the project... which, in turn, led to his being up at three in the morning) was to come up with /something/, anything, really, for this meeting - a final do-or-die brainstorming session before they began progress on... whatever it was they came up with. They would then have two weeks to put it into development, or at least to create a solid prototype for the investors meeting. Money was not an easy find in this business, after all.

Mamoru moved over to his desk in the corner, which was perhaps the cleanest thing in the lab - not that he was naturally a clean and orderly person, mind you. Indeed, the desk was clean largely because Mamoru had thrown his stuff everywhere else - the floor was littered with blueprints, wires, tools, and bits and pieces of machinery, which Mamoru generally had to maneuver through any time he wanted to cross the room. Utagai's desk, by comparison, was loaded with various files and papers, though he had an easier time getting to it - he simply had to walk along the much less cluttered wall to get to his station.

"Okay," said Mamoru, plopping himself down into his chair. "So... Any ideas?"

Utagai looked strangely at him. "I- I couldn't think of anything. I'm sorry."

Mamoru laughed. "Don't worry about it. It's these last-minute deals that make the ol' gears spin." Besides, it wasn't like he could fault Utagai for not having any ideas (well, not being willing to share what ideas he did have - Utagai Shinsuke was a very smart man). Not when he'd failed to come up with anything, himself.

Fifteen minutes in, Mamoru found himself growing impatient. Time was beginning to run short, and so far the only thing they had decided to develop were a pair of bad moods. Utagai was sitting in his chair, arms and legs crossed and muttering to himself, as was his habit whenever he had run into a wall.

Blast... Mamoru groaned - nothing. dammit, Mamoru had always been the put-crap-together type, not the make-crap-up type. It was everybody else who came up with the cool stuff they got to use - heck, Daigo-sempai invented /both/ the Transer and the Visua...

Wait a second.

"Say, Utagai?"

"Y-Yes, Amachi-san?" Utagai didn't look particularly pleased to be called upon, and frankly, he probably didn't want to be here in the first place - they may have shared a lab, but Utagai was hardly a social person. Mamoru, for his part, made a point to give him some leeway whenever this came up, often finding legit excuses to be elsewhere. Today, however, they simply had no time.

"You have that Transer blueprint, right? May I see a copy of that?"

Utagai hesitated for a moment or two, looking not a little uncomfortable with the idea of sharing his own data with anyone else. "I think so. Here." He flipped open his Transer - the green Dragon Vault type - same as Amachi's, for that matter - and activated, surprisingly enough, the Touch Pin Input System (which had been by and large rendered out of date by the Wavescreen System). He hunched over his Transer and made a few motions with the pen. There was a pause, and then a beep (Mamoru looked over his shoulder almost reflexively to see if he might see the Denpa-kun again) - Mamoru checked his Transer and brought up the schematic on a wavescreen. "Thanks, man."

Mamoru looked over the blueprint in silence. Now that he thought about it, most of these parts had been rendered obsolete - it wouldn't be too hard to get much the same thing as a Transer in a smaller package, but micronization aside, they needed something else. The beginnings of a smile working their way across his face, Mamoru summoned a second item, not quite a blueprint so much as a data dump.

...Mamoru hadn't quite simply given the Visualizer to Subaru following its rediscovery all those years ago. He'd originally found it when an old friend who still worked at WAXA had asked him to come in and help her clean up Daigo's station - Mamoru'd left several months prior. He'd quickly agreed - if he hadn't, the files would have been left to the disposal of certain executives, several of whom were not all that fond of Daigo, who perhaps was not the epitome of servility, though they would have loved to get their hands on his research. The friend in question had apparently decided they could be better kept in Mamoru's hands.

Mamoru had respectfully preserved Daigo's research - everything remained in a set of boxes hidden on AMAKEN's premises, and only Amachi knew where. Well, almost everything. The Visualizer, which he'd originally slipped into his pocket when no one was looking, was instead brought home with him - many was the time he'd pondered what they could do. Oh, sure, Daigo had been no Scrooge about his research, but he'd still kept a few secrets to himself, such as what, in particular, was so fascinating about looking through a little green lens all the time (and, for that matter, where he kept disappearing to with them). And with Daigo... absent, Mamoru now had an oppertunity to find out what.

The only thing he initially had found, however, was what it was like to wear green shades. Mamoru was hardly surprised - he had never been that lucky. His attempts to discovering the mystery of Visualizer Model Zero were left to the late hours of the night, when he had finished with his daily work at the then small company called Amachi Kenkyujou, populated largely by other WAXA malcontents. Even then, he went for several years without any luck.

And then he'd struck gold. Or silver, maybe.

After several months of fruitless effort, Mamoru had to admit he'd hit a wall regarding the glasses - the bulk of his activity was the result of operating under the idea that the Visualizer was something like a computer in dormant state. Try as he might, though, nothing he could do would activate the system - he knew none of Daigo's passwords. In frustration at his lack of progress, the idea came to him that he might dip into Daigo's old research for ideas, which led him to where he'd been hiding them. While he was going through the data, he happened upon a strange file marked "WAVE WORLD".

Mamoru's first thought was that it was a typo. He'd certainly was aware of the Wave Road (and its stupid acronym), but "WORLD" was almost certainly deliberately written instead of "ROAD". Curious, Mamoru tried to open the file, only to find it more difficult than he'd initially expected. And that was putting it mildly. The files in question had been set under a structural lock system, which normally meant that it was guarded under a series of ascending levels of security - any grouping of Level 1 to Level 9. Daigo, ever the punk, had left nothing so simple. His lock on the data was a tiered _puzzle_, in which one would have to essentially reconnect fragmented security protocols - each with its own miniature security - and then undo those. All the fun of a maze and about twenty layers of rubik's cube in one massive superstructure. And Daigo wasn't pulling any punches - the easiest entrance, where a very vexed Mamoru had begun, was level 2. After figuring out that particular problem - a standard Cardan grille, with the interesting twist of an Akkadian - Mamoru found himself face to face with a full block of Level 9.

Mamoru's intial plan of action was to spend the next few minutes cussing out his absent sempai, and would have proceeded in such a direction if he had not discovered what was hiding in a corner of the newly opened section. It was an almost inconsequentially small file - all of one kilobyte in size - insignificant except for being marked by what Amachi recognized as Daigo's signature image: an earthward shooting star.

This file had no security whatsoever, which prompted Mamoru's curiosity - he opened the file, only to find one little word: "Ryuusei?"

Mamoru particularly remembered the great shock of the next few minutes - the word had proven more powerful than he'd initially anticipated. At its sound, the Visualizer began to hum, which, as the only noise in the dark corner of AMAKEN's facilities, was enough to startle Mamoru into falling off of the box he'd been perched on. Righting himself, he took the Visualizer out and found its lens shining in the dark, casting the otherwise pitch room an ethereal green. He watched with wonder as the pattern of yellow circles emanating from the bridge of the frame began to light up in turn - when they finished, there was a single tone, and then a wavescreen blossomed before Mamoru's eyes.

'Hello, Mamoru,' it had read. 'I've got something for you. ~Daigo'

Mamoru had barely had enough time to read the line before the wavescreen disintegrated. There was a second beep, and Mamoru glanced at his Transer, where a second wavescreen had popped up, with the single line: "Download Complete."

Confused, Mamoru flipped the lid of his Transer open, only to gape in shock at the waterfall of data streaming across the screen. Specifications, models, instructions, all for one thing: lens data from the Visualizer.

Mamoru had been fascinated by the device, and now had a very good idea of what it did, a realization hampered by his lack of ability to do anything with that data. This had been several years ago, and the data had rested, undisturbed for much of that time.

Unable to glean anything more from the Visualizer, Mamoru had decided to give it to Subaru, whom he felt to be, well, the rightful heir - he'd been accused not a few times of being overly sentimental for a man of science, to which his usual reply was that he was also overly fond of fisticuffs and beer and would be happy to show you why. Besides, he'd always been delighted by puzzles (excusing that monstrosity of security protocols), and had plenty to work with in the code the Visualizer had left him. That said, it would be several years later before Subaru ever saw the glasses.

Now, on the other hand, Mamoru had the tools and equipment to put the Visualizer's lens data to work. He slid his fingers across and down the wavescreen he'd summoned to display the Transer blueprint, and in a moment, he had a holographic model to work with.

"Let's see, we can make this smaller, put in a projection system, lose the brace, wow, we can put in twice as much memory, and the camera..." He turned back to the data from the Visualizer. "Yes, that should be just fine.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he found himself announcing as he and Utagai walked into the conference room just as the meeting began. "I believe we have our prototype."

He cast his hand through the air, summoning a hologram of a Transer; it began to spin, increasing in velocity, actually becoming a white blur for a moment before slowing down, having transformed into the image of a small, handheld device, which fit easily into Mamoru's hand. "The next generation Transer - the Wave Scanner."

Everyone at the table sat up and took interest - even Utagai, who had been there back in the lab when Mamoru had begun to chuckle at his new idea, had to admit himself mildly intrigued, though not a little suspicious when Mamoru said he was going to save an explanation until the conference room. "W-what does it do?"

Mamoru laughed. "Well, besides enhancing all of the original Transer's functions, the main extra feature is an superior videoaural engine and camera function."

"Camera function?" repeated Utagai. "What's so special about that?"

Mamoru grinned. "Ideally, its not so much the camera so much as it is the filters FOR the camera - the filters we can put into play in this thing can "see" a greater range of the spectrum than we can, stuff like infrared and such." No need to mention the other layers of the data. He was sure in the intelligence of his companions.

He let the idea sink in for a moment; increasingly puzzled and curious expressions from around the table suggested nobody was quite understanding what he was getting at. Except for one.

"Wait," said Utagai in his low, shrinking voice. "The Wave Road... and the viruses?"

"Bingo!" said Mamoru, and suddenly expressions were beginning to change - a general atmosphere of dawning revelation grew around the table. "I have an old friend who told me that the Satellite Police have been looking into preemptive tech for denpa viruses - which, as some of you may have guessed, is what the Wave Battle Association has been working against, too. That said, while Wave Battle is widespread, its perhaps a tad inefficient, as relying on the whims of children can go either way. If we can provide something with location and pinpoint tech, I think we can give Satellite something solid to work with. And I highly doubt the public would say no to a newer Transer. So, everyone," he added after a moment's pause. "Wave Scanner: yea or nay?"

A quick look around the table told him everything he needed to know. Even the skulking Utagai nodded his approval.

"Okay, folks. We've got just two weeks, so let's get to it!"

* * *

Subaru was grateful for the quiet as he slipped back into his room through the window. He landed neatly beside his bed, and then steeled himself, taking a deep breath before disengaging Denpa-Henkan - happily, this required no ostentatious activation. Even more happily, Subaru was apparently becoming used to Denpa-Henkan, as the familiar burning was substantially weaker than he'd expected - this wasn't excruciating agony so much as it was simple pins and needles. He collapsed onto this bed for a few minutes, breathing deep. With any luck, he would be through with the reentry burn before the week was out. (He then paused, wondering how quickly had he accepted the new direction his life had taken).

"Now that was an adventure," he said, more to himself than to War Rock. "Well, let's hope the Jammer doesn't come back too strong, next time."

"Jammer?" repeated War Rock curiously. "I thought it was called Jamming."

"One Jammer, multiple Jamming. Less weird that way," Subaru muttered, hoisting himself into a sitting position. His stomach grumbled, prompting him to stare blankly at for a few moments.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," said Subaru, mildly surprised at himself. "It's just weird. I had toast for breakfast, but it just feels like forever since I had my last meal."

War Rock was unsure how to reply, so he remained silent as Subaru pushed himself onto his feet and sauntered down to the first floor, entering the section of the large room War ROck would later learn was called the 'kitchen'.

Set into the wall was a large machine not unlike an oven, its frame entirely unmarked chrome except for a small _IPC_ logo beneath the vertical door - it was the Automeal, which had been installed a few months after the Peace had fallen to earth. Subaru initially hadn't minded the machine, delighted that the Automeal could make just about any meal cooked or otherwise on demand, including pancakes, bacon, chocolate milk and even ice cream, which were all Subaru cared about his daily food groups - as, understandably, was the case of every eight year old. As he grew older, however, Subaru had begun to grow feelings of distaste for the machine, perhaps because the food had begun to lose its wonder, and not a little because he quickly found himself growing tired of all his favorites, his mother unwilling to check him on his consumption. Or maybe it was because it reminded him of how far he and his mother had fallen since the day - in either case, he hated using it.

His mother, on the other hand, had no such compunction - for a while she'd entertained the needless decadence the Automeal provided, until Subaru made a point to put his foot down when he was eleven (yay for pre-grown adulthood). Much to his initial dismay, Akane had refused to listen to him, but he had finally made a point of exactly how expensive the meals they had both been ordering were, and if they wanted to do it more, one of them would have to get a job, and there weren't many high-paying positions available to an eleven-year-old who didn't-quite-homeschool.

Akane, for her part, apparently taken those words to heart, and had begun working on finding herself a job. It was a valiant effort, Subaru had to admit, though his mother's attempts to find herself work were largely undone by both her lack of a college degree and a particular lack of focus and stability on her part. They'd managed to hold together for a surprisingly long time, partially because Akane had been particularly persistant - she'd most recently found work part-time at a cafe a few months ago.

Hopefully that wouldn't run out for a while. The compensation WAXA had given them for the Day Peace Died would dwindle soon.

With a sigh, Subaru crouched down, fishing through the cabinet and drawing out a medium-sized metal bowl with a handle - he told War Rock it was called a "sauce pan", but he was going to use it to make some "spaghetti", which was a subsection of the category of "food".

War Rock had decided he would observe this phenomenon in silence, as Subaru was probably not in the mood to deal with his curiosity. That said, after a time when he found himself growing rather impatient with something that had been in the back of his mind for a while.

"Subaru, I must ask - why did you run? Was that human an enemy?"

Subaru sighed, his mouth full of pasta. He swallowed the last of it, pulling down the Visualizer so he could see his partner. "Well, no, I doubt it. He was a cop."

"A cop?" War Rock tilted his head in confusion, the word meaning nothing to him. "If he was not an enemy, than why did we run?"

"He was law enforcement," Subaru answered. "He was probably there to get the car. Remember how that report said the Satellite Police couldn't get into town?"

"The 'car'? Oh, that vehicle you exploded?" said War Rock. "Was he displeased with such a thorough attempt?"

Subaru nodded, trying to keep his grin down. "Yeah. I think it may have been a tad overkill," he admitted - Luna's particularly poignant criticism echoing in his ears. "Somebody's going to have to pay for it."

"But we did save the girl and that man, didn't we?" said War Rock. "That must count for something."

Subaru coughed awkwardly. "Yeah, well, I think I may have screwed that up, too."

"The running away?" said War Rock in a manner that suggested he knew very well indeed how the incident had been screwed up. "Even _I_ could tell how suspicious it was. And I am hardly all that subtle myself."

Subaru groaned, letting his head fall onto his desk. "Yeah, okay, it was stupid. I was panicked!" he groaned. "I didn't want to go to prison." Or worse, Subaru thought - the image of needles and scalpels and dna tests filled his vision. Hey, he fused with an alien - there was probably someone on this planet who would take a "scientific" interest in that.

War Rock fell silent at the word "prison". He knew very well how miserable a dungeon could be. After a moment of this silence, Subaru stood up, and instead of summoning a wavescreen, actually opened the lid of his Transer, admittedly for a rather mundane task. "Wow. It's not even one-thirty, yet. Eesh."

Subaru finished the last of his lunch and tossed the sauce pan into the sink, where it landed with a clatter. Normally, the kitchen's automated cleaners would've immediately activated and begun making it tidy, but Subaru had turned the auto processes off. He liked the quiet.

Ding-Dong.

Damnit. What now?

Apparently the security protocols had been deactivated at some point during his meal, as Subaru hadn't noticed until he checked Transer and saw the "Security Lifted" message. Tiredly, he picked himself up from the table and sauntered over to the table. He summoned a wavescreen with a flick of his arm, one that displayed an image of what was on the other side of the door - handy little things, door cameras.

Subaru had to admit himself surprised at what he saw.

"Can I help you?" he asked, opening the door to find the two boys from last night standing on his doorstep, looking rather uncomfortable, especially the big one.

"Please, excuse us," the short one began (what was his name? Kizamaro?), "we apologize for disturbing you, but we had a question."

Subaru raised an eyebrow, remembering his distaste for the short one's smarmy manner of speaking. "Yeah? What about?"

Kizamaro cleared his throat, undaunted by the surly teenager's leaning against the doorframe (stupid favoritist puberty wasn't going to ruin his day). "As you may have noticed, we are currenlty lacking the companionship of our class president. We have been for about an hour, to be honest. She hasn't answered any of the contacts we sent her, which is remarkably unlike her."

"Uh huh," said Subaru, not liking where this was going. "And what does that have to do with me?"

Kizamaro cleared his throat a second time. "I happened to catch a glimpse of Iinchou's intended schedule for today earlier, which included a visit to your abode."

Oh, joy.

Subaru opened his mouth to say something, and then snapped it shut. He wasn't a superhero, right now. He was Subaru. "Haven't seen her," he said curtly. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Kizamaro nodded. He hadn't expected this to turn up a positive result, but it had been their one lead. Ushijima hadn't offered any others, at least. In fact, he'd been rather silent since they returned to his home.

This was not Subaru's appraisal of the larger boy, however. He yelped in shock and mild pain as he found himself suddenly pinned against the wall. "What's with you?" he demanded, glaring at the large, ham-fisted boy.

"You're hiding something," said Gonta simply, staring hard at Subaru. Kizamaro found himself rather stunned at this turn events.

"And how would you know?" asked the smallest of the three gathered on the porch.

Gonta ignored the little brat, focusing his attention on the boy he'd shoved against the wall. He wasn't sure how he'd known this, except for perhaps that he'd noticed something similar to how this punk was acting and the way he himself had been acting this morning. And he was determined to make it up to Iinchou for not being upset with him for today. "We haven't got time for your angst, pretty boy," growled Gonta. "If you know where Iinchou is, you'd better say it while you still have the teeth."

Subaru blinked, raising both eyebrows in mild surprise. Perhaps the hamhead wasn't so dim as he'd first thought. Not the best tactic, though - Subaru was pinned so firmly to the wall that he could easily lift both legs off the ground and get him in the gut. "Dude, let go. For your own sake."

"Do you actually know something?" Kizamaro squeaked, not a little surprised at Ushijima's deduction.

Subaru sighed. "I told you, I haven't seen her."

Gonta didn't move. "One more time, punk. You've got to the count of three to tell us what you know."

He drew back a fist for emphasis. "One."

Subaru blinked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know where she is. And I said 'go away'."

Kizamaro wasn't entirely sure what to do, now. His head kept whipping back between Ushijima and the Hoshikawa boy.

"Two."

Subaru rolled his eyes. He didn't want to put the guy out of commission, but his personal space had been affronted long enough.

WHAM.

Kizamaro squeaked and leapt aside as Gonta came crashing down, falling down the several steps onto the walkway in a stunned heap. "U-Ushijima-san?"

Gonta murmured something unintelligible, his eyes unfocused and mouth slack.

Subaru looked down at the heap for a moment, and then turned his back on them. "Please leave me alone. I told you yesterday, I have nothing to do with you." And then he returned inside.

Subaru waited for a moment, and then made sure the door was latched shut. There was a moment of silence, and then Subaru readjusted his Visualizer, looking over his shoulder at the alien pretending to be inconspicuous in the corner of the room. "And what exactly was that for? Seriously, you need to stop yanking my Transer-arm around."

War Rock harrumphed. "So this is the thanks I get for me services? I protect you while you are defenseless, and you become annoyed?"

"I could've handled myself," Subaru muttered, rolling his arm in a circle and flexing it. "Seriously, your way of doing things hurts."

"I was under the impression you hated fighting," War Rock answered. "I figured I would take care of it for you."

"Of course I hate fighting," muttered Subaru. "It's too much effort. Besides, whacking him over the head with my Transer was too obvious - the little guy saw it. I could've gotten out of there without worrying about him."

"Uh huh."

Subaru rolled his eyes. He was too tired to pick a fight with War Rock, anyway. "Hey, War Rock. You up for some legit training tomorrow? Not the fight-for-our-lives kind of deal, though."

"I thought you enjoyed that method of training."

"Funny, you," muttered Subaru, tromping up to his room. Didn't understand sarcasm, HA!

* * *

Kizamaro shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "Ushijima, get up, would you? People might see."

"Yes. Yes, they might."

Kizamaro squealed in shock and dismay, leaping about a foot into the air. "I-Iinchou!"

That one word seemed to register with Gonta particularly effectively, for he stirred and blearily made to sit up.

"Hello, boys," said Luna, looking not particularly as though she were enjoying herself. "Have we been having fun?"

Gonta had gotten a solid enough grip on reality to make sense of his surroundings, though after a moment of looking around, he understood he was about to find himself neckdeep in serious crap. "I-Iinchou!"

Luna let out a long-suffering sigh. "Yes, Gonta. It's me. Tell me, please, what exactly were you doing?"

Gonta began studying his left foot. "W-We were lookin' for you. You wouldn't answer any calls."

Luna raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "And this led to picking a fight with Hoshikawa-san... how?"

Kizamaro cleared his throat. "Ushijima-san decided maybe it would be a good idea to play 'bad cop'."

Luna closed her eyes for a moment, shoving her particular opinion of policemen to the back of her mind. She'd had enough of police for the day. "Gonta-kun, get off the floor," she snapped, cutting off the protest he was trying to make. "And follow me, both of you."

"Wh-where are we going?" said Gonta, lumbering along awkwardly.

"We're going to have a meeting," Luna answered plainly, knowing full well those words would be enough to shut the two of them up for a moment. "Today's subject is 'Tact'."

* * *

So, that brings an end to Chapter 4, which is the last part of the Training Day arc, which I wrote largely because I didn't feel like writing Subaru spending an hour hacking other people's facebooks, no, wait, entering their Transers (sorry, I always get those two confused).

Things should by and large pick up from here. Please, continue to speculate on who Dr. Hikari is, go right ahead.

Hopefully I'll get the 5th chapter done, soon. No promises, though - when I promised to finish this one, it was already half written, and I STILL ended up rushing some parts. :P

Until then, Ride On!


	5. Hardball

Summer was a time for interpretation.

Any resident of Japan could (and many besides would) tell you one of the least bearable times to be in the country would be during the summer, when 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures flooded the streets with the sweat of the citizenry. Store and vintage theatre owners, on the other hand, would tell you how magnificent a time it was for business - bottled water and assorted refreshments sold so quickly that whole aisles would be laid barren. In related news, the usually niche clientele that enjoyed classic theater-style moviegoing could easily double or triple - videocasts, after all, didn't come with air conditioning.

But all things had their proper season, and it was a well-appreciated farewell to the climate of summer when the green leaves burst into the colors of Fall. The air would cool, the leaves would fall, and everyone could look forward (or not, perhaps) to the chill climates of their winter home. Like a rubberband, really.

There was one simple problem, however. The temperature wasn't falling. Indeed, it was doing the exact opposite - the 65 degree weather of an October Saturday flared into the 100 degree weather of the next week's Friday. For the past week, one would have to scrounge the internet for anything not even remotely related to the latest in global warming. Skeptics, for such were always to exist, were able to hang one valid point - the most worrisome of details was that this heat wave was _incredibly_ localized. The region itself was tiny, a blip on the map for most of the world, though for those who lived there it was agonizing.

The entirety of the blaze was centralized in a suburb of southern Japan, i.e. the township of Kodama.

And most frustrating about the situation was that Hoshikawa Subaru had no way of stopping it.

"...He's mocking us."

Subaru was perched atop the windowsill above his bed, where he had practically ripped the window open to let in whatever breeze may come his way. It had gotten so hot he had actually removed all clothing save a pair of white cotton shorts, excluding the soaked washcloth he'd draped across his shoulders. He hadn't even styled his hair, which hung about his head limply like a brown pelt. He was staring out the window, not to the heavens as he had been wont to do in what seemed to be the entirety of a lifetime ago, but over across the neighborhood rooftops, an environment of their own separate from the streets below.

Any thoughts he might have had about composing a serenade with the line "o'er the rooftops of Kodama" would have to wait, however, as his attention was distracted by a sudden rumble emanating from the walls. He let out an annoyed grunt and hopped down, pulling on a white undershirt as he reached the door, just in time for the air condition to rumble to life.

"Mom!" Subaru shouted, knowing the walls would far better carried the annoyed tone rather than any actual words of his, tromping down the hall and stairs like a fortissimo bass drum. He stormed into the kitchen and just reminded himself to not inflict violence upon the home climate control panel as he was prone to do with wavescreens. The air conditioner, heartily displeased at having been uselessly woken up, let out a small whine as it rolled over and returned to sleep.

Subaru, whose aggravation was hardly helped by the necessity of shutting down the bliss-machine, rounded on his mother, who was sprawled shamelessly across the couch, wearing a garment somewhere between a t-shirt and a sheet with a neck-hole in it. Like her son, her hair was let down and completely dishevelled; unlike her son, one leg was tossed over the spine of the sofa, the other dropped to the floor. Her clothing was of arguably worse decor - among other issues, the baggy neckline had slipped down over her shoulder, revealing the band of a cheap bra.

"Damnit, Mom, don't touch the A.C.! You know better than that! And put your legs together, for crying out loud. This is a house for humans, not for cats."

Akane pulled herself up into a sitting position and aimed a look of petulent dissatisfaction at her son, a look which wouldn't be out of place on the face of a child having been denied a prize of vice. "Oh, come on, Su'," she groaned. "It's friggin' awful. Turn it back on."

"We can't afford it," Subaru said pointedly. "You can't afford it. Not on a part-time salary. And fix your shirt."

Akane harrumphed childishly, flopping back down onto the couch, face-down. Subaru suddenly found himself with another reason to get a move on, if only to prevent his mother from sinking what little money the Hoshikawas had left into air conditioning, which would give his mother an excuse to start dipping into Subaru's savings behind his back. Again. He really needed to find a new hiding place for that jar.

Subaru made to return to his room, reaching the stairs before checking himself. With a sigh, he instead moved to the kitchen, slid open another window, and plopped down onto a barstool at the counter. Why the hell did HE have to be the adult, here? With a sigh, he tugged the ConMod of his Transer out of his pocket and placed it on the counter, flipping it open to find War Rock's reply.

_"I would not be surprised if he were. \Shuuhatsujin\ do not react particularly to such temperatures as this - indeed, compared to the normal heat energies we are used to, this climate is relatively mild. If Taurus believed humans to be weak prior to this, his opinions may very well have been reinforced."_

The technology framework that was called the Transer was actually a pair of separate systems working in tandem. The main component was the Control Module (commonly called the "ConMod"), a disconnectable fliptop computer roughly the size of a billed wallet, which operated most of the Transer's innate functions and the Card Force slot. The bulk of the terminal - the hardware that was clasped around the user's arm, was actually an advanced processing and projection system. It was due to that particular vital fact that it's casing was so durable, leading to the extra hardware being given the name of Shell. Only when connected to the Shell could the ConMod perform the higher functions of activating certain Force Cards or summoning a wavescreen. Subaru had left the Shell of his Transer in his room, as, while it was usually quite efficient with its heat, having a live computer strapped to his arm wasn't much of a good idea to Subaru, who was trying to cool down as well as he could.

With his forefinger, Subaru lazily traced a square across the bottom screen of the ConMod, activating its keyboard function. The fingers of his right hand danced across the digital keypad, typing his message in response.

_"Well, that's fantastic. So, have you come up with any ideas on how to stop him, yet?"_

Subaru had to remind himself to be thankful for their discovery of this method of communication - the heat made things very difficult for such negligibles as gratitude. One of the many problems Subaru had to deal with, keeping a fugitive alien in custody and all that, was how to communicate without causing suspicion - War Rock was invisible to the naked eye, not silent to the naked ear. It had been a blessed relief to discover he could remain hidden in the E.S. of Subaru's Transer, which had become something of a necessity when Subaru discovered War Rock's proximity to certain devices was causing slight, but still worrisome, glitches and malfunctions, much like a magnet might when engaged in proxemics with a television screen.

It was this discovery that War Rock could reside _within_ the Transer (which was, somehow, freed of malevolent influence from War Rock) that led to Subaru proposing that War Rock attempt to take advantage of the text system. War Rock proved more capable with the system than Subaru had initially hoped - then again, War Rock was capable of physically fusing with the equipment, so he figured he shouldn't be all that surprised - the alien discovered he could actually lay out his thoughts, which the Transer would automatically transcribe into human text, saving War Rock the trouble of struggling over the language barrier.

Subaru harrumphed, though quietly, so as not to attract attention. He slid off of the barstool and trudged over to the refrigerator, his bare feet sticking against the floor where his mother had spilled a small jar of garlic last night. He tugged open the fridge door and peered inside, selecting a pair of chilled water bottles. "Oy!" he called over to the couch. "Heads up!"

Akane, still irked from before, aimed a tweaked expression at her son before yelping and dodging the thrown water bottle so violently she accidentally fell off the couch. Subaru snorted and returned to his spot, discovering War Rock had sent his reply:

_"As many as I had five minutes ago, Son of Daigo."_ Once again: didn't understand sarcasm, HA! _"Until - rather, unless - we discover a way to cancel out the beacons without causing them to implode, they remain present until their purpose is fulfilled. Taurus knows this, which is why he is 'taking his sweet time', as you humans say. Though I still cannot fathom why he seems to be taking a few liberties with the formula."_

Subaru made a face, gulping down some of his water. He checked his pocket for the crumpled piece of paper he'd jammed in there earlier, smoothing it out on the counter. Sketched across it was a strange polygon - an octagon, technically, as it had eight points and sides, though it was hardly the standard circle-esque form so much as it was a four pointed star - which Subaru had drawn as per War Rock's instructions. He looked back at the ConMod screen, where War Rock had summoned the screencap Subaru had taken of last night's DNN newscast - more specifically, from the latest report of Kodama's serial arsonist (between the wave of heat and the wave of arson, the general conversation of the populace of Kodama had taken a decidedly surly tone), who had gained the rather cheesy nickname, the "Red Raider", though most people just called him the "Raider" to make things less... stupid, they would say. The screen cap featured a small bird's-eye map of the town, with sites that had been destroyed by the arsonist marked in red.

There had only been six sites damaged so far, but the damage level was terrifying. So far, the Raider had struck random, unrelated targets - a brick warehouse, a restaurant, a paint factory - seemingly motivated solely to destroy buildings associated with the color red. "Destroy" was a very accurate word, as anyone coming to work to find the building in ruin could testify - though most people, whose places of residence and employ were blissfully free of any crimson, were honestly tempted to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. That all changed this morning, when the Raider's new target came to light - two overlapping tiers of highway overpass in the south-western corner of the town had been reduced to absolute rubble, bringing traffic to a screeching halt in the business district. The damaged sections of the highway included major support pylons, spreading the damage considerably farther than Subaru figured the "Raider" probably intended, though he doubted the arsonist minded all that much.

The internet, which was in theory the bastion of free speech and in practice a wretched hive of scum and villainy, was exploding with vitriol. Why weren't the police doing their job? Who knew where the Raider would strike next? How much red qualified a target? This last point was incredibly important - the only clue police could find as to why the highway had been destroyed was a salvaged piece of concrete covered in red graffiti, which did absolutely nothing to assuage the interwebs. Not that it was a feasible endeavor to assuage the interwebs even in times of peace.

Politicians were scrambling over themselves to discredit one another. Their opponents were the obvious cause of all this. The Raider was an obvious manifestation of a climate of hatred. No, the Raider was a result of unchecked crime rates, resulting from lazy, unmotivated, entitled police. No, the Raider was acting on political urges. No, the Raider was a psychopath.

Subaru, for his part, hated politics. Then again, he couldn't really blame the politicians for their human-scale solutions.

What made Subaru curious about the Raider was that Taurus Fire was making deliberate deviations in the formula - the marked screencap was a very, very rough imitation of the proper design. The proper formula followed a strict geometric pattern, whereas Taurus, who - War Rock assured Subaru - definitely knew the formula, was making deliberate detours to set up the beacons. This bizarre activity hadn't been immediately apparent until Taurus had established the third beacon - Subaru and War Rock were initially preoccupied with the fact that Taurus had been forging the beacons in the first place.

* * *

It was 10:48, Tuesday evening. RockMan was zooming along a branch of the Wave Road, waving a pleasant, if not quite cheerful, hello to several NetNavis he passed on the way. RockMan had been gaining something of a reputation as a Virus Buster around town, if "around town" could really be applied to the Wave World. So far, besides some mild admiration, the NetNavis hadn't been all that talkative about him, which was nice - though no one had figured out yet which factory had produced the custom model. Subaru, for his part, was just fine keeping it that way.

RockMan's way was relatively unobstructed, tonight - Kodama's denpa-virus element had decreased noticeably in the two weeks since RockMan had "moved in". Subaru was glad for it, especially as it saved him the effort of again running through his Battle Deck, which now thankfully included several more versatile Cards - a plethora of Ground Waves, Moe Rings, and Tail Burners, to be specific. As fantastic as his new toys were, however, Subaru found a certain suspicion growing in the back of his mind. Wave Battle was adapting Cards - weapons - from alien monsters. There was no possible way that the Wave Battle Association couldn't have realized that. Which made it all the more suspicious a situation, especially since they seemed to have a relative tight control of this information - it was hardly public knowledge.

Well, no, actually, Subaru realized - they were being quite blatant about it. He remembered receiving his original Wave Battle Deck (indeed, a crappy little starter deck) - and reading the flavor text on the back of the box, which described the situation incredibly accurately.

"Earth is under attack!" The box had read. "Alien monsters from the Planet FM have swarmed the Planet Earth and are bound and determined to subject the planet and its citizens to their control! We're sending out a call to all Wave Battlers, young and old, to join the fight! Fight for the future of your homes and families! FM shall not win!"

There had been initially a small bit of legal pushback to the franchise - some of the families who had lost members aboard the space station Peace were not exactly happy to find a branch of the otherwise respectable IPC-Gabcom Foundation apparently making light of The Day Peace Died. The intellectual class, however, had seized upon the "joke" with a vicious glee. It became something of a fashion to be a Wave Battler - many of the symbols of the franchise became household references - there had even been a small wave of it in the beauty industry.

As with all fashions, however, it fell out of style when the next big thing came sailing in to harbor. The enthusiasm for Wave Battle dimished sharply as fads were wont to do - it became popular instead to demean Wave Battle as childish and stupid, nevermind the fact that the system still remained a worldwide phenomenon that fascinated young and old alike, particularly those in software fields, which were constantly trying to find ways to more effectively diminish the wave of viruses that had overwhelmed the COLONEL and IRIS systems.

And Ameroupean video game producers were given another reason to loathe Japan, but that was hardly news to anyone, anymore.

Subaru decided at some point in the future RockMan would have to make an appointment with the Wave Battle Association and figure out what was up. Tonight, however, he and War Rock had other business.

"Lessee, where was it again?" Subaru muttered to himself. "Hey, War Rock, show me that map?"

War Rock made a small assenting noise, and a wavescreen appeared off to the side, zooming through the air alongside RockMan.

"Ah, okay," Subaru nodded, cancelling the wavescreen. He looked over to the right and pivoted suddenly, leaping off of the Wave Road branch he'd been surfing on and onto another a few yards away, landing with all the grace of a professional skater and continuing along, unperturbed. The new branch swung away to the north, to where he knew his destination to be.

Subaru hated nostalgia, if only because it hung about him in waves. He forced the feeling down, knowing what was coming, though the very sad twinge he felt when he arrived still got to him.

Saloma's Garden had been part of Neo-Densan even before it had become Neo-Densan, founded way back in the early 21st century by the Hayamis, a husband and wife couple named Daisuke and Saloma, the business having grown from the latter's humble little sandwich kiosk. It was a unique establishment, somewhere between a flower shop and a cafe, blessed with good food and economic fortune. Saloma's Garden maintained itself as strictly a localized family business, refusing to expand beyond the limits of Densan, in contrast with its sometimes business associate, often business rival, Mahajarama, a world-wide chain of curry stores. While the franchises at first seemed relatively niche-based, the garden-restaurant and curry joint mysteriously enjoyed a great deal of popularity and free advertising, something which had continued from their earliest days - in their founding days the two restaurants were known to host the high-profile entourage of one Mayor Ooyama Dekao and his family and friends (this same mayor of Densan would later be elected Prime Minister of Japan, with running mate and good friend Omori Asuta, a small business owner and later district councilman of Cyber City), who could only find positive things to say about the franchises, as did the reporters who hounded him, often dropping into the restaurant simply for a chance to speak with the politician, who would initially refuse, instead referring them to the staff.

Long story short, word spreads fast.

Some two hundred years later, Subaru remembered the excitement he felt whenever his family would drop in to a Saloma's - he positively adored the corned beef sandwiches, especially with chocolate milk. He remembered the atmosphere, the incredibly friendly staff - flirtation was common, Subaru remembered, though Akane never minded, as the whole family knew Daigo was twisted into a dweebish Gordian Knot around her pinkie.

Subaru felt that familiar cynical lump plummeting into his stomach, aiming a bitter "Told you so" at himself for good measure as he arrived, diving into a wavehole and emerging below to find a scene of desolation before him. Being a combination of the intangible, invisible biodenpa called War Rock (Subaru had adopted the word "biodenpa" to describe creatures like War Rock, partially because Shuuhatsujin was a mouthful and partially because he could think of no other term to describe the nature of the creature - what with "pure energy" being stupid and "light spectrumite" hardly likely to become catchy), and the solid, visible human Subaru, RockMan could render himself either of those states and anything in between - a quick aside to War Rock had the pair become as transparent as possible while making sure to retain enough mass to keep from slipping through the Earth's crust. (Their initial exercises in controlling this power - their "wavelength" - still gave Subaru nightmares).

RockMan jogged forward silently, eyes forward at the center of the wreckage. All that remained of the building was its floor, broken wood and burnt ash covered in the debris of the former roof and walls. he leapt over a small pile of warped, acrid-smelling wood and what had once been a table, and whispered the command, "Darkbright." The Visualize Visor darkened its filter in response, preventing Subaru from going blind.

In the dead center of the wreckage was a shining orb of light a little larger than a basketball, floating just above RockMan's eye level - and visible only through the Visor. At first Subaru thought the light was pure white, until he got a closer look - the sphere was a broiling mass of color and energy, so bright that it only seemed white. As Subaru approached it he put his hand out, feeling waves of energy emanating from the sphere, washing across him like surf breaking against the sand. He could hear... was that music? He could hear rough voices chanting, the echo of a thundering boom- _He was marching, a soldier in a mighty army..._

"Do not touch it, Son of Daigo," said War Rock, clearly and firmly. The change in tone from War Rock's usual demeanor did more to hold Subaru back than the words ever could. He gazed at his hand as if it were some foreign entity before pulling it back towards him.

"What _is_ it?" Subaru asked quietly, surprising himself with the sound of awe that carried his words.

"A beacon," answered War Rock with a quaver of loathing. "Taurus means to summon the FM-ian army."

Subaru's head snapped down to face War Rock. "He _what_?"

"This beacon is meant to reveal the location of this planet to the army he and his small battallion left behind. Perhaps even to the other generals of the council. Taurus began his chase of me without much time to inform the other members, so doubtless they would want some news from him."

"Council?" repeated Subaru, his eyes slowly drifting back towards the shining orb. "Generals?"

"Pay attention, Son of Daigo. And, yes, generals. Taurus is the chief of the invasion force - though his minor squadron consists of the viruses you and I have been hunting and that Jamming creature, who seems to be lying low for the moment. These are likely to summon the greater force he left behind for the sake of speed."

The lump in Subaru's stomach was sinking lower and lower. "Summon? As in instantly warp them here or simply point out where we are?"

"The latter, though he perhaps does not have faith in one alone to complete the task."

"And what does that mean?"

War Rock was silent for a moment. "Do you hear that music, Son of Daigo? Stupid question, it probably invades your senses as I speak. That is an Shuuhatsujin melody of command - the song of sight, in specific. It is that melody that binds this force together - without it, the energy and power here would be released in a massive explosion."

Subaru paused, wondering whether or not he should make a point of mucking about over the command melody. "How massive?"

"This... structure is, or was, when it still stood, near the center of a similar row of other structures, which are aligned on a platform of the material you humans call cement, which follows the straight and turn of the path of your motive machinery-"

"It's called a 'block', War Rock," said Subaru, though he kept the irony out of his voice. "What about it?"

"Feel the heat," War Rock continued "Feel the power of the beacon. The only thing that holds this in is that music you hear. If the energy here were to be released, the burst would level everything within a ten 'block' radius. NO, Subaru!"

War Rock whipped his head aside and clamped down firmly on Subaru's wrist - pain shot through Subaru's arm, jolting him awake. "Do not touch it! The slightest interference will upset the melody and render its stability as nothing!"

Subaru bit his lip and lowered his hand. "Sorry. But how do we stop it?"

"It must be neutralized," War Rock answered. "And it can only be neutralized by the melody designed to, well, neutralize it. It's antithesis."

"Which you probably don't know, huh?"

"Us?" said War Rock. "At an advantage? Whatever gave you that idea?" (War Rock was slowly losing his hold on the excuse of not understanding sarcasm).

"So what do we do?"

War Rock was silent for a long moment, and when he spoke up, Subaru couldn't have felt less surprised. "I do not know."

Subaru sighed. As far as either of them could tell, or, at least, as far as either of them _would_ tell, Taurus Fire had found a way to keep them in check. Possibly with a second course of -mate.

Days would pass, and then Subaru would come across another report of destruction from DNN or some other news source - WGB Studios had a burgeoning, fairly reliable service. (It had nothing to do with the cute announcer girl. Nope). RockMan would pay a visit the evening after he would hear about it - he was finding less and less time to engage in his stargazing hobby - and again would they find a shining orb, invisible to all but them, radiating waves of heat and power. Still frustrated at their lack of success, or any opening at all, it wasn't until the third beacon was risen that the temperature in Kodama began to spike.

It was also in response to the third that Subaru asked a question that had been bugging him.

"Tell me something. If this Beacon thing is a bomb, how come the areas they're set up in are already destroyed?"

War Rock was silent at first, though it was more of the kind one lapses into when figuring out how to describe something rather than an intentional denial of information. "One of the things I first noticed when I came to this planet was its denpa environment."

"What about it?"

"While I assumed it must have existed, as Daigo certainly seemed to be involved with it, I had not expected it to be so... thin."

"...Thin?"

"Yes. Unlike humans, biodenpa-seijin are more or less self-sufficient." Apparently, War Rock found the term "biodenpa" bearable. "We need not draw on outside forces like air or sustenance to survive. Certain Shuuhatsujin like Taurus, however, can draw upon the energies not only of themselves but of the surrounding environment to use. However, the denpa environment of the planet of the Shuuhatsujin is much more dense - there's far more to draw upon. If Taurus were to draw upon those energies for a Beacon, it would cost him no more effort than a human snapping fingers. Here, however, your denpa environment isn't so easily useable. It's _present_, certainly, but, strangely... quiet, I suppose." War Rock refused to elaborate on the sudden change of description.

"Satellites, maybe."

"Satellites?"

"You saw that field of strange-looking machinery encircling the planet when you first got here, didn't you?" Subaru asked. "Those are man-made satellites - they transmit signals between each other and down to earth. The Wave Road is a concentrated network of satellite transmissions."

War Rock was silent for another moment, almost as though he were deliberating on whether or no that was a satisfactory explanation. "I suppose so.

"In any case, Taurus cannot draw upon enough energy to focus into a Beacon, so he must provide it himself..."

"As Taurus Fire," Subaru finished.

Much like the viruses from the Wave Battle game, Denpa-Ningen transformations seemed to be wield elemental powers - the only element RockMan had encountered locally, however, was Fire, well, "Heat", really, which was superior to "Wood", and weak against "Aqua". RockMan's element was "None", so no luck there, nor did he wield any Aqua elemental Battle Cards (he wasn't particular keen on going around and asking for a trade, especially given the invitation to a sneer it would be... whatever cards he had weren't worth trading for). Taurus Fire's element was clearly Heat, however, and in his efforts to focus the thin layers of Denpa around him, he might very well have had to generate the bulk of the power himself, which would certainly explained the desolation that he left in his wake. Assuming that were true, it would certainly seem that Taurus Fire was becoming more enthusiastic in his efforts, judging from the overpass. It was also entirely possible Taurus realized the implications of his forays as the Raider.

That certainly explained much, such as how no one had ever seen the Raider in action, assuming Taurus Fire could turn invisible as RockMan could. And how the fires kept starting, even in the least likely environments. And why at night, though that one was easily explainable in the first place - the criminal element revelled in the darkness.

War Rock, however, still seemed unnerved. "If my estimate is correct, Taurus Fire should be trying to summon the Shuuhatsujin arm."

"We already talked about that, didn't we?"

"Yes, but..." Oh, dear. Some other bit of trouble. "The placement of the beacons is... irregular."

"And what does that mean?"

War Rock summoned an image for Subaru to observe - a four-pointed star, not unlike one from a compass rose. "The arrangement of the Beacons for the mass summoning he expects to do is thus. However..." A second image materialized, displaying the beacons Taurus Fire had, in fact, set up. Instead of the rigid, slightly oblique angle of the star, Taurus Fire's beacons were at a bizarrely acute angle, unevenly spaced as they should be.

"Weird. I see your point."

"Taurus should know well how to arrange the beacons, though he has made deliberate deviations in the formula."

"And we have no idea why?"

"No."

* * *

Another three beacons along, and they still had no idea what Taurus was up to. So far, he had completed six of eight beacons, each further spiking the heat by about five degrees or so - this made 108 degrees Fahrenheit. On top of that, War Rock estimated that when all eight were summoned, there would be enough sheer _power_ to atomize the nation of Japan and all of its islands. In the meantime, the heat would continue to rise, and possibly spread.

In short, the only one in the whole town in a good mood was Taurus, wherever he was.

_"Are you sure Taurus is even here?"_ Subaru wrote War Rock, pausing a moment to wipe his head. _"He could simply have hopped town and only comes back to set these beacons up."_

_"Oh, yes."_ The reply was almost instant. _"Taurus either does not know or care enough to mask his presence. Humans cannot sense him without special equipment, and his host is more a slave than a partner. He perhaps doubts he has any reason to fear - his closest equal is RockMan, and, well, neither of us has any particular idea as to how to, what did you call it, 'get under his skin'?"_

Subaru remembered their conversation on Taurus - which now seemed so long ago. _"How about you?"_ he wrote. _"Your presence, I mean - can you mask it?"_

There was a pause, in which Subaru looked up to find it was approaching noon. When he looked back down again, War Rock's reply had come. _"Half of my power has been invested into your White Card, so naturally, I have significantly less power to mask - if I wanted to, I could hide it entirely within your Transer, though I doubt you had that in mind - you want me to search for Taurus, I assume?"_ Wow. They were beginning to pick up on each other rather well. _"When separate from your Transer, I can withhold my presence to the rough equivalent of a Network Navigator without much effort - I highly doubt Taurus has the subtlety to pick up on the difference. Though assuming we find Taurus, what do you plan to do? Finding him would be one thing, fighting him another."_

Subaru paused for a moment. _"I want to find out about Taurus Fire's host. I don't know why, but if Taurus met his host in the way you said he did, then either the host was a scumbag or in a seriously bad place. Let's see if we can go find out."_

_"What would that do? Do you plan on killing the host in his natural form?"_

Subaru hesitated. He remembered still the agony of being on the receiving end of Taurus Fire's might, and he could imagine how much easier it would be if- No. No. They wouldn't go there. _"Not exactly what I had in mind. Besides, killing the host won't take down the beacons. I... I want to know something."_ Subaru was mildly surprised at himself for being so forward about it. _"I want to know what kind of person Taurus is taking advantage of. It's worth a shot, at any rate."_

_"Awfully daring for you."_ Subaru couldn't help but smile at the line. _"Are you sure you're willing to go through with this?"_

_"It's too damn hot to play defense."_ Subaru answered. _"You in?"_

There was a pause, and then, _"I could use some excitement. Listening to you gripe gets old rather quickly."_

Grinning at the affirmative, Subaru downed the last of his water bottle and promptly chucked it into the trash chute. He got up, stretched and rubbed his lower back, which had grown slightly sore from his slouch, and then dodged upstairs.

When he came back down ten minutes later, he had exchanged his sweaty underclothes for something a bit less... intimate. He'd spiked his hair again, so, at least, he could claim there was some kind of style to it, and had donned his favorite red shirt, a pair of dark jeans, boots, and a pair of fingerless gloves. He'd reattached the Shell of his Transer around his forearm and was reinserting the ConMod as he sauntered over towards the front door.

"Kaasan, I'm going out."

Akane pushed herself up onto her elbows, looking even more bedraggled than previously - perhaps because she had poured some of her water out over her head, slicking down her hair and causing her white shirt to become slick and see-through (not a sight Subaru particularly wanted to see). "In this weather? You're joking, right?"

Subaru shrugged. "The way I figure, half of it's mental," he answered, tapping himself on the side of the head for emphasis. "The heat sucks so much because we expect it to. Stop thinking about it, and it might get better. Or easier to deal with, at least. Later."

Akane watched as the door shut behind him, and then collapsed back onto the couch.

In the silence of the room, she could feel the misery welling back up in her throat. Damnit, she hadn't told him. Again. She was ready to start berating herself when she was suddenly distracted by the ringing of her own ConMod.

* * *

"Iinchou? A-Are you entirely sure about this?"

"Yes, Kizamaro, I'm sure. And, because I know you're going to ask a second time in two minutes, I'm sure, again."

Kizamaro really knew better than to test her like this - he really did. It was just so darn hot that he didn't really assume anything positive would come from this encounter.

Shirogane Luna and company were currently riding the SkyTram, 847 line - not, however, in comfort. As the highways were... incapacitated, land-based vehicles were solidly out of luck, and so, frankly, were most other areas of land-based commute. Nobody in particular wanted to be crossing over the next section of highway that the Raider would strike because some punk kid had gotten a little feisty with some spray paint. Public terrashuttles were thus all out of the question, while aeroshuttles were booming, as was the in-between option, the Sky Tram. Booming business was all well and good, though Luna was not particularly fond of the crush and stench of the other forty or so bodies - as station attendants pushed them all in to their car, Luna made sure to drag Kizamaro and Gonta so they were directly behind her. She had done this in direct anticipation of the other passengers, many of whom were middle aged-men. In other words, "If anyone touches my butt, I'm taking it out on you two. Capisce?"

This was a circumstance both boys wished heartily to avoid, so it was with due dilligence that they flanked her posterior - unfortunately, due to his shrinking stature, Kizamaro had to force himself to look to the side, as while he was sure the view was undoubtedly pleasant, it would be certainly unwise to invite Iinchou's wrath by contributing, if only in part, to the situation she sought to avoid. When she drew a line, only fools and suicides asked, "How far was too far?"

In retrospect: maybe he shouldn't have taken that bet.

Ushijima, for his part, sure seemed to have it easy. Besides direct responses to Iinchou, he was relatively zoned out for the whole ride - except for that one instance where Iinchou had been proven right in her prediction and Gonta ended up nearly shattering the finger bones of the man behind them by clamping down on the man's outstretched hand hard to make his point, which he emphasized with a glare so fierce the man had to let himself off at the next stop so he could go home and change his pants. Even more jarring than that incident was how easily he returned to his nonchalant, almost vegetative, stare out the window. Kizamaro was certain something was up - he'd been so ever since the incident where they'd found Gonta sleeping with his eyes open - but he was very careful in how he mentioned it to Iinchou. Not helping things was how Iinchou responded; if she was interested in what Kizamaro had to say, she sure hid it well.

"Arriving: Yashibu, West Station," chimed the sultry voice of the NetNavi driving the Tram. "Following: Kodama. Dream Island. Roppongo Hills."

Good. Only fifteen more minutes. The sooner they got out, the better. The SkyTram slowed gently to a stop, the doors opened and a stream of passengers exited, only to be quickly replaced. And Kizamaro had so been hoping for a spot of fresh air, too.

The trio had spent the morning visiting a hospital - or, more specifically, visiting a teacher at the hospital. Their chemistry teacher, one Fujimaki Shizuko, had not come to class in a week due to a serious accident that broke both her legs. Surprisingly, it had been Ushijima who'd reported her accident, finding her sprawled out unconscious at the foot of the stairs leading to the second floor. While he could have easily picked her up, Gonta instead called for the nurse, who could make sure the teacher was handled more gently.

Luna had gone to the principal's office and asked for a roster of students who had her classes - she explained how she wanted to make a Get Well Soon card, which combined easily with her model student status to convince them to hand one over. She did indeed hound the students down, accumulating a good few dozen signatures, and returned the roster within a few days. Just long enough for Kizamaro to download the names into his database.

They all then went to deliver the card, bringing along a small bouquet of roses that Luna herself had purchased. When they arrived, however, Gonta had drawn up short, looking very hesitant. He refused to answer to questioning, so Luna, assuming he had an issue with the hospital, left to deliver the gifts and well wishes herself, assigning Kizamaro to look after him. Half an hour later, Luna emerged from the hospital with a general status update. "Fujimaki-sensei is doing just fine. She'll be out for most of the next few months, though, so we'll have a regular sub filling in for her come Monday. Feeling better, Gonta-kun? Come on, we're going back home."

"Will we be starting the Watch, Iinchou?" Kizamaro asked as they had returned to the station.

"Later tonight, around six," said Luna. "Have you still got the Engine?"

Gonta grunted and held up the device he'd been carrying - a dark cube, some fifteen pounds, with a geometric pattern of lines and shapes radiating out from the circle in the center of the top face. "Very good. Keep holding onto that for me?"

Seaside Hospital, where their sensei was staying, was located on the far east side of Neo-Densan, just behind the artificial coast it had been named for. From there, one could travel to the SkyTram station by trolley down Beach Street, which also traveled past DNN Studios. The Beach Street station was some forty minutes away from Kodama by SkyTram - a forty minutes which were, thankfully, almost up.

It took the trio some ten minutes to fight their way out of the station and down to the ground floor, and another five to get past all the people trying to get into the station. It was in situations like this where Ushijima proved particularly useful, in that he might as well have sailed easily through the crowd. Then again, the crowd might've parted entirely willingly if only to get away from the large teen with a particularly nasty look in his eye. Kizamaro would've, certainly.

"Are you entirely sure about involving Hoshikawa-san in this?" repeated Kizamaro. "It doesn't seem as though he would take to the idea."

"Perserverence is a virtue, Kizamaro-kun," Luna answered. "And I think it's been long enough since you two clashed with him that I figured he might have cooled down a bit."

Kizamaro made a noise. "Couldn't we visit him later? It's almost noon, and it's very hot. We don't have anything else to do until six tonight, correct?"

"Correct," Luna answered. "What about it?"

"Well, I was thinking," Kizamaro said, suddenly a tad nervous. "Maybe we could go to the school - they opened up the pool to the public, you know."

"Hmm." Luna paused, considering. "Well, there is some merit to the idea, I suppose. Well, I only need Gonta-kun for the moment. Tell you what, Kizamaro-kun: you go on ahead up to the school and go hang out at the pool all you want. I'll come and get you around five or so."

"A-Are you sure you don't want to come?" Kizamaro asked nervously. "You work harder than any of us - you could probably use a break even more."

"That's okay," Luna said, smiling a little. "You go on ahead. Oh, say hello to Hoshino-san for me!"

"Hoshino-s-san?" Kizamaro squeaked, realizing she'd probably known from the start. "What does Hoshino-san have to do with anything?"

Luna looked down at him, quirking an eyebrow. "A bit of advice, Kizamaro-kun: the next time you make a bet that involves me making a public appearance in a swimsuit, try and make it with someone who doesn't run their mouth so much. Boys can gossip, too."

Kizamaro made a little whimpering noise. "I'm so sorry! Please don't be angry with me - I wasn't thinking clearly!"

"Obviously," Luna answered cooly. "Now, then, when you get to the pool, tell Hoshino-san that you're going to take my place tutoring him tomorrow. He needs some help with his pre-calculus work."

Kizamaro paused, not entirely certain he'd heard right. "A-Aren't you going to punish me?"

"The money you've just lost to Hoshino-san and the hours you'll spend trying to get him to pay attention are punishment enough. Be thankful that it's too hot for me to get worked up over this, and that I'm simply going to consider it a misguided attempt at flattery. Now, then, I suggest you get going before you really try my patience."

Kizamaro was already speeding down the sidewalk, a sight which prompted Luna to sigh. Perhaps a tad low-brow of her, but she had other things to worry about. "Gonta-kun, I need you to- um, Gonta-kun? Oy, Gonta!"

Gonta blinked and shook his head blearily, slowly tumbling out of his waking dreamland. "Yeah, Iinchou?"

Luna stared hard at the boy hard for a moment or two. "Are you sure you're feeling okay? You've been acting very strangely for the past few days. Anything you want to talk about?" she asked, her voice softening - she couldn't have had this conversation with Kizamaro around. "If something's bothering you, you can talk to me about it, you know?"

Gonta shook his head vigorously. "Nothing's wrong," he muttered. "I'm fine."

"So why aren't you looking me in the eye?" Luna asked. "You aren't lying to me, are you?"

Ushijima Gonta went stiff as a board. "N-No, of course not."

"So, what's up, then? Something's wrong - everyone's noticed. Kizamaro's been going on and on about it."

Gonta's eyes narrowed. Always, it was that little prick. Always him. Always the favorite. Wasn't he, Gonta, relevant at all? "I'm just fine. Is there something you need me to do?"

Luna hesitated. "Calm down, Gonta-kun. No one's trying to hurt you."

Sweat trickled down his brow - the first sign he'd shown of being affected by this bizarre heat wave. His face contorted, almost as though he were trying to suppress something.

"Please, talk to me, Gonta-kun. People are worried about you. I've seen how your grades have been slipping. Is something wrong between you and your mother? Did-"

"SHUT UP!" cried Gonta suddenly. Luna yelped and dodged back as she watched some kind of mental restraint snap in her lieutenant. "Shut UP! Shut UP! SHUT UP!"

"Gonta!" Luna said, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

Gonta made an incoherent snarl and then a let out a bellow like some kind of enraged cattle. "GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU BITCH!"

He dropped the cube he'd been carrying and swung violently at her with enough strength to shatter bone - Luna leapt haphazardly aside, tumbling across the grass and ripping a score in her stocking and the flesh of her leg beneath it. "Gonta?"

Gonta made another incoherent noise somewhere between a cry and a gurgle, his massive arms still swinging wildly until they found a target. Luna stood dumbfounded as Gonta smashed his fists again and again against the trunk of an old oak tree, screaming. The bark was thick and rough, but Gonta, panting and heaving, didn't seem to care or notice. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, his eyes darting here and there in some bizarre frenzy - he looked for all the world like some panicked animal.

"Gonta!" Luna cried, worry twisting her voice. "Gonta, snap out of it!"

Gonta, more from exhaustion than anything she might have said, finally stopped punishing the tree and let his arms drop before leaning against the tree, his forehead pressed against the bark. Luna could see blood dripping from his torn knuckles, though she was more preoccupied with the sound of sobbing she could hear and the sight of Gonta's great shoulders heaving.

"G-Gonta-kun," Luna said quietly, forcing the fear down. "What's happening to you? Tell me."

Gonta slowly, almost as though he were struggling, turned around to face her. His eyes still refused to meet her, and he was trembling fiercely. Luna was reminded vividly of a highball that had been filled too high - the wine was trembling just above the rim of the glass, threatening to spill with the slightest disturbance.

"I- I..." Gonta gestured vainly, unable to find himself a solid explanation. "I- I have to go!"

With bewildering speed, Gonta was suddenly charging away, to where perhaps he didn't even know, leaving Luna dumbstruck and alone in the middle of the park.

Or, well, almost alone.

"So," said Hoshikawa Subaru, sauntering up nonchalantly behind her, hands in his pockets and eyes obscured by his weird shades. "What was that about, exactly?"

* * *

One of the things Dr. Hikari enjoyed about his new residence was that it afforded him a pleasant view of the neighborhood - perhaps it was because he was just quaint, but he'd always enjoyed the sight of carefree children playing in the street. Of course, ever since the bizarre heat wave began, most mothers had banished their children from the open sunlight, creating the odd situation in which the youth of the town looked forward to their school hours as the moments of time in which they would be allowed to actually /do something/. The neighborhood proper became eerily quiet, which irked the doctor to no end.

Unfortunately, it looked as though he would be unable to do anything about the weather, confined to quarters as he was for the foreseeable future. It was certainly a rational idea, to keep out of sight for a while, especially given the, ah, rather /unfortunate/ incident with that Taxi cab two weeks ago. That said, however perfectly willing he was to lay low, laying low was distinct from confinement, which was what this was.

...Not that he could leave if he wanted to. As it stood, the order to remain in hiding was simply adding insult to injury - the effort it had taken him to escape from the battle between the boy in blue and the monstrous humanoid - with the briefcase in tow, completely unnoticed (not that anyone had paid him much mind after being shot) - had been enough to put his already damaged leg completely out of commission.

As such, before he could consider actually doing anything - whether or no that involved disobeying orders - he'd have to fix his limb.

To do that, he'd needed to hash together a makeshift workstation out of the living room - unfortunately, given the materials he had available, he'd ended up simply co-opting the low-slung coffee table in the den as a workbench, where he was currently sitting. Lying on the center of the table was his damaged leg - a mess of sensitive machinery and wiring coated in a layer of neo-ceramic chitin, one of the strongest materials known to man (and the reason why he was not currently paste). Surrounding the limb were a number of bizarre tools and and papers - pages of blueprints and manuals from many, many years ago.

Unfortunately, as used to as he was of taking care of his artificial limbs, he was still missing a crucial peace that prevented him from completing his work. Or, perhaps not for that much longer, to judge from that knock at the door.

"Come on in!" he called out, which he followed up with a pleasant, "Thanks for coming all the way out here. I know you're busy."

"Ha," answered the newcomer almost derisively, stepping into the house and shutting the door firmly behind him. "You wouldn't stop pestering me if I'd ignored you." There was the thud of a pair of thick boots against the varnished wooden floor and the rustle of a flapping long-coat, and then a medium-size box was placed gently on the last open space of the table. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you were out of commission. What did you do, try to crash a car?"

Dr. Hikari looked down at the mechanical leg, his smile very close to being aptly described as wry. "Something like that. Ooh, shiny," he added childishly as he flipped open the box. "How much did it cost you to get ahold of one of these? Or rather, how much contorting did you have to do?"

"You know me," said his friend. "I hate bureaucracy like any red-blooded human." That comment drew a definite snort from the doctor.

"Right. Let's see here... Ooh, one genuine D.R. Plug. Looks like it's second-hand, though. Who'd you get it from, the Ameroupan army? Sharo? Not Creamland, certainly?"

"Bah," muttered the stranger. "Nothing so cheerful. Try contraband confiscated from the Tanabatan underground. Well, the leftovers of it. They found a bunch of kooks hunched over this thing and slurring weird prayers to something they called the God of Light. Get this - one of the creeps they found? He used to be the Prime Minister."

The doctor's lips thinned, and he made a slight harrumph. "I'm not sure whether to be more surprised over the fact that he's involved in some kind of Plug worship, or that he survived the war."

"I thought that, too," said the stranger, who began to stalk around the den. "But, you know what? The plug was reacting. And why is it so dark in here? You don't need the light _that_ focused on your leg, do you?"

"_'Uuuu-laaa'_ reacting?" said the Doctor, ignoring his last comment, picking up the small chip with fingers far more deft and gentle than one would expect. With a small cast of his free hand, he had summoned a data readout of the Plug and was running through the information.

"Yup. Nothing flashy, but it was running. The closest thing they have to a theory is that they all went insane from the war, and exposure to the Plug just reduced them to babbling fools. I thought you might like to hear that."

"Huh. Yeah, well-"

"Sixty-five percent of all theories are bullshit explain-aways," finished the stranger in tandem with the doctor. "Yeah, I know. Still, it's weird."

"You sound almost frightened," said the doctor nonchalantly, cancelling out the wavescreen and leaning over the leg. "That's not like you at all." He picked up the leg and flipped it over, his fingers tracing over the smooth surface of the metal.

"Who said anything about being frightened?" demanded the stranger. "It's just weird, that's all. And that damned smirk on your face tells me that you've already got a dozen theories on this. And, given the nature of your always-more-well-informed-than-mine theories, I can only imagine."

"Hardly," laughed the doctor. "Two or three, maybe, but not a dozen. Besides, the only ones most likely to really know would be the, ah, higher-ups. And you know how they are about... sharing. Ah, here we are," he announced, sliding his hand over an unremarkable section of the polished metal. Well, unremarkable to the average person, maybe. It took a master of this particular craft to detect flaws and niches in NCC. At the doctors touch, a section of the metal flipped back to reveal intricate machinery and wiring.

"You really don't like them, do you?" asked the stranger. "And don't try to be funny, you know damn well who I'm talking about. Or have they got this place tapped, too?"

"Well, we don't particularly see eye-to-eye, if that's what you mean," said the doctor. "They're a tad too focused on the big picture, for my tastes. They tend to leave out the details. Or, rather, to forsake them. And they /wish/ they had this place tapped."

"From what I hear, they've got a grip on a few details," said the stranger. "At least, in one area."

Dr. Hikari made a face. "Yeah, and all the other details can just up and die, for all they care."

"Wow. You _really_ don't like them, huh?"

"I know that I shouldn't be so off-put about them; they're trying to achieve a good, I know, but still. There's a difference between fighting for the greater good and treating all the others fighting as tools."

"You are _such_ a bleeding heart."

"No, I'm just keeping in mind that the greater good is for the little guys. They're just so focused on the 'greater good' they have a tendency to abuse the little guys. Or maybe they're only worried about the greater good for themselves. They certainly haven't shared how far ahead they're planning with me."

Dr. Hikari examined the machinery inside the open leg for a moment before spying what he was looking for. His fingers wormed their way between a pair of dark cables and gripped something tiny - in a moment, he had tugged something out of the leg that was recognizeable as akin to the D.R. Plug that his associate he brought, except for a wicked crack along its face. He examined it for a moment before laying it delicately on the table, and then he picked up the Plug that had been given him - with incredible care, he slotted it into the opening he'd created.

There was a beep and a small humming noise, which inspired the doctor's smile. "Plug and play," he whispered, more to himself than anyone, though that hardly stopped the visitor from rolling his eyes.

"Nerd."

The doctor laughed brightly at that. "Since when have I been anything but? Oh, and speaking of nerds, how's WAXA, these days?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, Yoily got herself promoted to Chief of R&D four years ago. Interior Administration's still full of bastards, though."

"She did?" said the doctor, slipping the cover closed and hefting the leg off of the table. "Good for her. Calling some of the shots on her terms shold be a nice change. Poor thing's gone through Hell and back."

"Nobody's seen Iver, still. I have to give it to him. For an Ameroupan, he sure knows how to blend in with the Japanese crowd."

The doctor made a small noise, which the stranger might have taken for nonchalance if he hadn't known better. "I can sympathize. I hope he's happy, at least, wherever he is."

He placed the leg on the floor, foot down, and checked the series of rods protruding from the open end of the limb, just above the knee. He twisted in the chair so he could maneuver it better, and then slowly slid the connecting joint back to where the rest of his leg was waiting. There was a spark, and then the leg slid together, connecting easily. The doctor waited a moment, and then wiggled his toes.

"Finally," he muttered. "Now I can get out of these gaudy shorts."

The stranger burst into a laugh. "Seriously? You're _that_ bothered by them?"

"You have no idea," answered the doctor. "What my little brother was thinking when he gave these to me is entirely beyond me."

The stranger rolled his eyes and the doctor disappeared for five minutes, returning in a pair of jeans.

"Oh, that's right!" said the doctor, sauntering over to the corner of the room and hefting a medium-sized briefcase off of the floor. "These are for you-know-who. Would you mind delivering these for me?"

The stranger rolled his eyes. "What, you can't do it yourself?"

Dr. Hikari sauntered over to the window, which he'd dimmed down a few hours ago. "I'm trying to stay out of the public for a while."

"Ah," said the stranger. "The whole getting-up-and-walking-away-from-a-car-accident thing."

"Well," said the doctor sheepishly, "it was a fair bit more than a car accident. Surviving getting shot at kind of squashes credibility."

"Shot at?" said the stranger. "Wow. What did I miss? Oof, what's in this thing?" he grunted as he took the briefcase. "Is this all _paper_?"

The doctor shrugged and smiled. "You can't hack paper."

"True," said the visitor. "So, tell me more about this shooting thing. Did you get on the wrong side of Satellite?"

"Nah," answered the doctor. "The, ah, opposition is playing perhaps a tad more hardball than the higher-ups were expecting."

The stranger rolled his eyes. "You know, I'm honestly tempted to wish everything blows up so we don't have to worry about hiding any more. Takes away your excuse for euphemising me to death," he explained, tossing the briefcase over his shoulder. "So, this goes to silverhead, right?"

The doctor sighed. "You know better than to call him that."

The stranger barked in laughter. "I'm a Cossack. You know I don't give a crap about that sort of thing. Besides, he could use getting taken down a peg or two, in my opinion. Too damn upstage for his own good."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," sighed the doctor, walking with him to the door. "You and your humble opinions. Say 'Hi' to Louis and Higuchi for me, if you can."

"Please, don't remind me," growled the stranger, scratching his chin. "I never want to see that Godforsaken green outfit again."

"See you later," said the doctor, laughing. "Have a good one!"

"Yeah, yeah," answered the visitor. "You just worry about getting out of this cave sometime this next week. You'd make for a crap hermit."

Dr. Hikari laughed and waved from the window beside the closing door. The visitor, briefcase still slung over his shoulder, walked away down the street with a hand in his pocket. Eesh, how subtle. He could at least pretend to sweat in that leather jacket.

The doctor rolled his eyes and summoned a small thermometer readout - 101 degrees Fahrenheit and rising, tenth of a degree by tenth of a degree. The doctor made a face. The fact that he had been forbidden from interfering, however subtly, rankled him to no end, a sensation made all the worse by the knowledge that, even if he wanted to, he probably couldn't do anything now.

He found himself agreeing with his compatriot. Hopefully things would come to a head, soon. If this heat wave kept up, there would be hell to pay.

Alone, he returned to the living room, turning up the lights with a twitch of his fingers and sauntering over to the mantle above the fireplace. He thumbed across the spines of a few of the books there before drawing an old novel away from the line. He sat comfortably down on the sofa and began to read quietly.

There was silence for a moment, and then the doctor stiffened - hearing something he hadn't in years. It was a low, ominous chuckle, one rusty from lack of use - it was that same rust that kept it at a low chortle and not at its original giggle. Still, this was the most activity the doctor had heard from the owner of that voice in a long time.

"Don't know why you're so excited all of a sudden," muttered the doctor, betraying no more than mild bemusement. "You're not going anywhere."

The voice fell silent, and without another word, the doctor returned to thumbing through the book.

* * *

Subaru let out a mild sigh, sinking into the chair - he was still amazed they had gotten seats here. Wow, that air conditioning felt _good_... and hopefully his mother wasn't running up the bill back at home. Crap.

"What's your problem?" Luna asked from across the table. "I know we aren't likely to get along, particularly, but is there a need to grimace at me like that?"

"Huh?" Subaru blinked. "Oh. No, it's not you. Just thinking of something else."

"Uh huh. May I ask what?"

"Nothing important," Subaru evaded. He had other things to worry about besides his mother's lack of self-control. "So, anyway, you still haven't told me why we came here."

Luna glanced at him mildly. "Why do you want to know?" she asked nonchalantly. "You don't seem to be the type to concern yourself about others."

The two teenagers were sitting in the corner of an old-school, Meiji-esque ice cream parlor in the southern corner of Kodama, which was infinitely more pleasant than the blazing heat wave outside. As such, it was incredibly packed, even by people who couldn't find a place to sit and had stuffed themselves into the open spaces and corners simply so they, too, could partake of the heavenly air conditioning. Subaru had to imagine stores like this were likewise packed - he could only imagine what it was like in the freezer aisles of grocery stores. Subaru was having some trouble keeping an eye on the strange cube Luna had made him carry.

"I have my reasons," Subaru answered weakly. Luna across from him, raised an eyebrow.

"Obviously, or else you wouldn't have asked."

Subaru cast an annoyed look at her. "I suppose it was just a moment of weakness on my part. I'll make sure to be extra grouchy the next time we run across each other. If I ever come out of my room again."

...Whatever reaction he'd been expecting, Subaru was not particularly prepared to deal with giggling, which was what Luna had suddenly dissolved into. "Oh, quit posturing, Hoshikawa-kun. No one buys it."

Subaru was in a relatively good mood from the air conditioning, it was true. He was in a rather forgiving mood, to boot. That said, did the girl have to be so harshly on the money about him?

With a sigh, he decided this was a waste of time. Frankly, he wasn't entirely sure why he was speaking with Shirogane in the first place. War Rock had sensed Taurus' power emanating from the bull-child. Hell, forget sensed - Taurus had practically enveloped the boy. His issue should be with Ushijima.

"Nevermind," Subaru said, lifting himself out of his chair. "I'm out of here."

Or he would have been, if his sleeve hadn't caught on something. Looking around, he found, to his mild surprise, Luna had grabbed ahold of his shirt and was tugging him back in a manner that betrayed a mild level of earnest on her part. "I'm sorry, Hoshikawa-kun. Please, sit down."

Subaru shrugged. "Why? I made the mistake of concerning myself with a guy in some pretty obvious pain, and I got dragged out here and forced to pay out of my own pocket for someone who doesn't particularly feel like reciprocating in kind."

"I'm sorry if you feel that way. Look, I have my own problems, and the heat makes creeps out of the best of us. Come on, sit down."

Subaru did as she suggested, telling himself it would probably easier than fighting his way through the noonday crowd, when the store was at it's most packed. It had nothing to do whatsoever with the fact that this was the closest he'd ever gotten to a peer of the opposite sex in ten years. Over ice cream. In a manner that might be mistaken as romantic.

Nope. Not a thing.

Now, if only War Rock would stop snickering.

Again, Subaru had to wonder how he had gotten here. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Not five minutes after he and War Rock had left the house, War Rock pointed a beeline straight to the park. If Subaru had been surprised by how quickly things were going, that was nothing - NOTHING - to what he felt when he crossed the boundary of the park.

Looming up into the sky, easily reaching a height of maybe 16 feet was what Subaru first took for a pillar of flame - with a sudden churn of his stomach, however, he realized he was looking at some vague form of Taurus Fire, looming upwards over a child in the distance Subaru recognized as Ushijima Gonta. The pillar of fire strongly resembled Taurus Fire, though it were almost as though the monster had been stripped of most of its armor, leaving its bare, flaming body beneath, with the exception of its crown, clad in a simplified version of Taurus Fire's headpiece and large pauldrons likewise. Curving outwards from the sides of his head were the same wicked curves of the Ox Horns, though these were all of flame.

"I-Is that _Taurus_?" Subaru whispered, dumbstruck.

"Yes," War Rock muttered unpleasantly.

For all his massive presence, however, Taurus Fire did not seem to be in the mood to do much. His massive arms of flames were crossed across his... 'chest', for lack of a more accurate term, and his head was bowed, snout pointing low. It were as though he were in some mode of dormancy - manifest, obviously, but docile.

"Is he... _sleeping_?" Subaru wondered aloud - any doubts he might have had about holding this conversation were allayed with a quick check. Nobody was around the park - as most of the children had been banished to the comfort of their own homes by their mothers to be protected from the heat. Well, no one except for ox-child and his taskmistress (curiously, the little spidermonkey was nowhere to be seen).

"Perhaps," answered War Rock, unsure. "If he does indeed discharge his own power to forge the beacon, it may cost him sufficient energy to necessitate recovery."

Fantastic. Well, every moment Taurus spent recharging his batteries was another moment he wasn't annihilating RockMan. He took a deep breath and then sauntered forward, moving downwind from the only other two people around, but close enough to be within earshot.

"SHUT UP!" Came the sudden cry. "Shut UP! Shut UP! SHUT UP! GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU BITCH!"

Stunned, Subaru watched as Gonta flailed about for a moment in some horrid frenzy before turning on the nearby oak and bloodying his knuckles on it. As he thrashed wildly, Subaru could only watch as the power of Taurus began to swirl around him, enveloping him in a mist of flame - and then, in a mere moment, the roaring flames all disappeared into nothingness - leaving a scared-looking child behind. He muttered something that Subaru couldn't hear, and then scampered away. Subaru's initial instinct was to tail him - and with a start, he realized that Shirogane Luna might very well share that same intention. It would hardly do for her to see Taurus Fire Live in Concert, however, which meant Subaru would have to distract her.

"So... What was that about, exactly?"

So far, Luna hadn't proven forthcoming with answers. In the ensuing confusion of Subaru trying to gain an answer from her, she'd somehow bargained for him to accompany her somewhere with a less bothersome climate - and she just so happened to know of a small ice cream parlor in the corner of Kodama-cho.

"Hoshikawa-san? _Hellooo_, anybody home?"

Subaru blinked, shaking his head. "Sorry. Did I miss something?"

Luna giggled again - she was feeling much more cheerful now that she was cooled off. "I was wondering that, myself. You zoned out for a second, there. Something I should know about?"

Subaru coughed. "Not really. Look, Shirogane-san, I was just curious about Ushijima-san. He looked like he was going crazy."

Luna paused, but found herself cut off before she could answer.

"Here you go," said a voice. "A root beer float and a fudge sundae."

"Ooh," Luna chirped enthusiastically. "Looks good! Arigatou, Tsukasa-kun!"

Subaru looked up at the boy who had delivered their ice cream to them. He was thin, with a very boyish face and long hair (green, for that matter, which was all the more startling in that it didn't look heinously fake) that he'd pulled back into a loose ponytail behind his head, probably to keep it out of the way. He had a cheerful grin and a mischeivous twinkle in his eye. "Of course, Iinchou. I didn't know you were on a date."

Subaru squawked in dismay and practically fell out of his chair. Before he had a chance to string two or three coherent syllables together, Luna was already answering the boy. "Oh, no, it's nothing like that. Hoshikawa-kun and I are simply discussing the weather and how it can make some people a little stir-crazy."

"Hoshikawa?" Tsukasa repeated curiously, turning to look. "As in, Hoshikawa Subaru?"

"Yep," Subaru said nonchalantly, feeling - bizarrely - his hackles rising under the boy's gaze. "Want to make something of it?"

Tsukasa blinked, and then laughed. "Oh, no, not at all! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. Some people have been mentioning you around class, recently, is all."

Perhaps because he feared making a bad impression, Tsukasa next opened his mouth with a change of subject. "Say, Hoshikawa-kun, have you heard? About IPCG and AMAKEN?"

"Nope," said Subaru. "I'm afraid I haven't."

Tsukasa chuckled. "They're making a new Transer system. What did they call it, the Wave Scanner? It's supposed to help destroying viruses. Well, they're hinting at it. They haven't made an official press conference about it or anything, yet."

Subaru made a small noise. "Sounds cool, but I probably couldn't afford it."

"Yeah, that might be a problem, I suppose," Tsukasa admitted, looking almost... disappointed. "Well, maybe we'd get lucky and it could be a steal." There was the sound of someone shouting back from the area of the counter, causing Tsukasa to look back. "Oh, poop. I've gotta get back to work. Nice meeting you, Hoshikawa-kun. Good seeing you, Iinchou! Ah - hey," he added sheepishly, wheeling back around to face them. "I know you guys want to stay in here, but, er, we've got a massive line trying to get it - I don't mean to be rude, but we're trying to hustle everyone in and out as neat as we can, so could you two, ah..."

"Not a problem," Luna said understandingly, at once getting to her feet. "Come on, Hoshikawa-san. We're leaving."

Subaru opened his mouth to say something he probably shouldn't have, but decided against it. Keeping the blonde in high spirits was his main priority.

"Thanks a bunch, you guys," Tsukasa said, walking with them to the doorway. "Sorry that you all have to leave like this."

"Don't worry! It was nice to see you!" Luna saids. "Take care!"

She watched him disappear into the crowd, before slowly turning back, a strange expression on her face. "How strange. I didn't know Tsukasa-kun worked here."

Subaru glanced back at her before returning to his float. Well, if that little side adventure wasn't weird, he didn't know what was.

Having been denied the heaven of the parlor, the odd couple found their way back to the park - they eventually settled under the shady foliage of a large tree in the southwest corner of the park. There was silence for a moment as they simply enjoyed the taste of the chilled refreshment in the shade, but Subaru reminded himself he had business to accomplish.

"So, about Ushijima..."

Luna looked at him shrewdly. "Forgive me, Hoshikawa-kun, but I can't help but find that this is a fair bit out of character for you. In spite of my many advances to engage in dialogue with you, I consistently find myself brushed off. Now, come this bizarre weather, you suddenly take an interest in Ushijima, who, last I remember you two meeting, you clobbered with your Transer. I do believe I can be justified in my suspicion."

Subaru hesitated - his initial worries about engaging this with Shirogane were coming back to him quickly. And now he looked like an idiot, probably, or, at the very least, incredibly shifty.

"Of course, if you have a solid reason, I might reconsider my opinion."

Subaru whipped his head up and stared. Luna was looking off to the side, clearly attempting to be disinterested, but there was just /something/ in her voice that sounded almost as though she were trying to backpedal from being too harsh. Subaru paused, wondering how to address the situation, when an idea hit him.

"A few weeks ago," he started slowly, carefully, "I was attacked."

Luna looked at him in surprise and sat up. "Attacked? By what?"

Under normal circumstances, somebody might've called Luna out for asking "By what?" instead of assuming a "By who?", but Subaru was hardly going to cut this lifeline on a techinicality. He looked around nervously, and then slowly leaned forward conspiratorily, finding himself pleased when Luna reciprocated without much hesitation. "I... I don't know. I know this sounds a crazy, but I think it might have been human, but it was too big. It was... weird. Like a robot, almost, and it kept talking about itself in plural, like Legion or something."

Luna practically gaped at him, almost dropping her sundae. "Did it call itself 'Jamming'?"

Subaru paused, biting his lip. "I- I think it might have. I don't remember listening to it, much," he said with a sheepish scratch of his head. "I was trying to get away from it."

"What happened?"

Subaru hesitated again. If he hadn't been speaking to Shirogane Luna, he was certain this story would've made about as much headway as a crushed snail. "I- Well, you probably wouldn't believe this, but- This guy in blue showed up, out of nowhere. He and the weird, Jammer-thing fought, and when I came back later, everything was fine."

"Did you hear anything blow up?" Luna asked, with just enough of a hint of exasperation to make Subaru twitch. Luckily, she didn't notice.

"No, at least, when I got went back, everything was fine. The train had been moved, though."

Luna was silent for a moment, giving Subaru a look somewhere between curious and scrutinizing. "Okay, so... what does that have to do with Gonta?"

Subaru hesitated again. "This- That Jammer-thing, when it first showed up, it was just a normal guy. Or, well, almost."

"Almost?"

"He - the man was acting wierd. He was looking around all strange and kept saying things to himself. He just walked up to me, and, well, he went nuts. He started screaming and going ballistic, and suddenly, well... he transformed into that Jammer-thing."

"So, what are you implying?" Luna asked, as if she had no idea.

Subaru shrugged. "I dunno. I just didn't think that Ushijima kid was the kind to go all crazy like that."

Luna looked at him, and much to his surprise, he found her glaring at him. "Frankly, it's none of your business. I'll have you know Gonta-kun has some... problems he's working through."

"Obviously," said Subaru. "And he's doing a fantastic job of it."

WHAM. Subaru fell over, his cheek red. "How dare you?" Luna demanded, enraged - she'd actually gotten to her feet. "How dare you belittle him like that? You know absolutely nothing about him!"

Wincing, Subaru pushed himself back up into a sitting position. His shirt was soaked in root beer and some ice cream was still slopped across it - it had spilled when Luna had slugged him. (Memo: Shirogane Luna hits twice as hard when not RockMan). "You're right," he said quietly. "I'm sorry - it's just... I guess I'm a bit freaked out about this whole thing. I didn't mean to hit him, back then, you know," Subaru said quietly. "He just startled me, was all."

Luna harrumphed. "And why exactly should I believe you?"

"Because I think whatever happened to the guy who attacked me might be happening to Ushijima."

Luna opened her mouth to say something to him, something demeaning and, if she was lucky, cruel - and then she remembered with a sudden churn of her stomach the horror of the Jamming emerging from the car - and how it had held her, and the memory of those slimy, wriggling... _things_ it had used on her. Could she really blame Hoshikawa for being so freaked out about everything?

Feeling suddenly very tired, she sank to her knees. "I apologize for losing my temper, Hoshikawa-san, but, please, have some care with your tongue."

Subaru nodded, tenderly touching his cheek. "I just... I remember, when the guy came up to me, it was like he was talking to himself, like there was something in his head." As it particularly stood, Subaru had no factual basis for this, whether it was true or not. "I just wanted to know if something was going on like that with Ushijima or not. You're right, I shouldn't have said something like that. I guess I'm just no good at this sort of thing."

Luna looked at the boy for a moment, and then sighed. "Truth be told, I'm worried, too. You're right, at least in a way. Gonta-kun has been acting very strange lately. Since before this heat wave started," she said, almost curiously. "It really all started the day after you and I met," she said. "We found him sitting on a crate in his pajamas, in the middle of the day."

And so they sat and talked, and War Rock remained silent throughout, feeling Taurus Fire's power in the distance, waiting.

* * *

And so, that's Chapter 5.

Yes, yes I did change the title - for those of you just now joining us, this used to be called "Shooting Star", which I scrapped because it was perhaps a tad too cheesy and didn't get across like I wanted it to.

One of my greatest problems writing this story out is I fear I may want to do too much, and so I have to work on being aware both of the long-term what-do-I-want-to-dos and the short-term how-do-I-get-theres.

When I write this chapter I have to think of which characters get attention and how can I get them to further the story (there are a LOT of characters to write about, here) - this can be one of my main problems in that I'll hit maybe two or three writer's blocks in a single chapter. :P

What really gets this story written is the extensive period of reflection that I put into it (the Beacons idea came up maybe halfway through the first draft of this chapter - cue rewrite!), which is where I get a bunch of ideas. Another benefit is that it allows me to think of which plot threads I get to address. The main problem, as you may have gleaned, is that it just takes so LONG. :P

Okay, Chapter 6 is in the works. See you soon, everybody.

Ride On!


	6. Tending Bar

It was 2:47 in the morning, which meant Hoshikawa Subaru normally would have been in bed. Of course, that assumed that he led a normal life. Which he didn't. Damn, he was sleepy.

He picked up his cup again and made sure not to take a gulp like he had the first time and sent scalding hot coffee seething down his throat. Boy, that had been fun - and discreet, too. Luckily, he succeeded this time, though he was very much aware of the eyes of the bartender looking back at him (well, he _was_ tending bar, even if this cafe hadn't actualy sold any alcohol to Subaru's). He decided he would ignore the attention for the time being.

For a moment, Subaru wondered whether or not he should try to look as though he were brooding. Brooding males (that weren't Subaru, anyway) generally seemed to attract females by the dozen, if television were to be believed. On the other hand, he was A) positive he would look ridiculous, and B) not entirely certain whether the attempt would be worth it, considering the only other occupant of the cafe was a somewhat surly bartender with oily black hair.

_Ding-a-ling!_

The bell tone rang, announcing a newcomer. Subaru glanced over his shoulder, gagged on his coffee, and quickly cast the hood of his coat up and over his face and began mopping up the coffee he'd spilled on himself.

_Please don't notice me. Please ignore me. The Hell are you doing here, anyway?_

"Evenin'," said Inspector Goyouda as he sauntered into the cafe. This he said to the barkeep, as he would have no particular need to notice the gangly, hideaway teenager in the corner. Not yet, at least. "Got anything good after 2:30?"

The barkeep snorted. "Coffee and donuts, I assume?"

"Simple cops, simple tastes," Goyouda answered. "Two dozen glazed'll serve. NO, Lieutenant," he added suddenly, glaring at the head that had popped through the door. "We are _not_ getting coconut sprinkles. Get back out there or I'll have your freshly seasoned hindquarters served to the K-9 unit.

"Oy," he muttered as the disappointed face retreated from the door. "Good Lord, he'll be the end of me."

"You want your coffee black?" prompted the bartender, fiddling with a machine in the back.

"Nah. I gave up on trying to be badass twenty years ago. Got any cream?"

The inspector chuckled to himself as he sauntered away from the counter to wait for the food. Subaru did his best to involve staying unnoticed, which involved him trying to wilt himself down under the table as far as possible, though in the end he probably should've simply got up to leave, as his rather awkward maneuver earned him the attention he was trying to avoid.

"Squirrel in your pants, son?" Heiji ventured, having noticed the shrouded figure - well, the kid was trying for presence, and Heiji was feeling generous - in the corner. "What are you doing out here so late?"

"Lookin' for someone," Subaru answered back, deliberately keeping his voice off. He couldn't use his RockMan or Daigo voice, on the off chance that the Inspector would recognize either one. (Technically, he'd never heard the RockMan voice, but it wouldn't do to introduce it to him, here).

"Uh huh. Folks kick you out?" he asked, sidling into the booth across from Subaru. "Folks _know_ you're out?"

Subaru stiffened. He felt like reminding the Inspector that the Citizen's Rights laws held that he was functionally free to hang out wherever, whenever. He didn't, since, A) to do so would mean he was entering this conversation as a whiner, and, B) his citizenship was technically an eighteenth birthday gift - his proxy citizen status was extended to him by way of his mother in the meantime.

So Subaru didn't answer, his face lowered and staring at the stain on the table. The coat he was wearing - his father's old jacket, really - was a few sizes large for him, but what Subaru had found annoying at first, he was now grateful for, as the extra hood size kept his face hidden. Now if only it were, say, thirty degrees cooler. Crap, was it getting hotter in here?

"Not much of a talker, huh?" The inspecter gazed mildly at the figure in front of him. He didn't try to peer up from under the hood, as that would be heinously stupid and childish, but he couldn't help but get a familiar vibe - ah, that was it. The last punk who'd been this stiff-lipped around him was Kamen Rider. Well, almost, anyway - this kid had a voice.

"Who're you looking for?" he tried. "A girlfriend?"

Subaru snorted. "Nah. Guy I know." Keeping silent would probably land him in hotter water faster, and by talking, he could maneuver, however slightly. "Big guy. Can't miss him."

"Huh," said Goyouda. "And, uh, did you chose the scenery? Or is he the one into all-night coffee shops?"

"Eh. He's got a thing for places with some red in them."

Between the exhaustion, heat stress, and caffeine, it took Subaru roughly thirty seconds to remember that the roof of the coffee shop was red, and another five to realize how much crap he'd stepped in. He stiffened, trying to get a read off of what he could see of the inspector - and from the way his jaw was suddenly set, it wasn't looking good.

There was a very pregnant silence for a while, in which Subaru alternated between wondering who would speak first and how awkward things would get.

"So, was that you who sent us the tip?"

Subaru hesitated. A tip? Somebody had sent in a _tip_ about Taurus Fire? Taurus certainly didn't seem the type to risk that kind of interference. And if it wasn't Subaru, War Rock, or Taurus who'd sent a tip, then...

Who else was playing this game?

Subaru remembered suddenly he'd been asked a question. "So he did talk to you guys. Didn't think he had the balls." Subaru certainly didn't, but he'd left things like self-preservation behind when he began voluntarily fusing with a semi-corporeal alien being. "Mind if I ask what he told you?"

"Isn't that priveledged information?"

"Sure, but our little bet depends on whether or no he told you specific information, and I can't pay unless I know what he said."

"But if you know what he ought to have said, than that means you know as much as he does, doesn't it? So it really doesn't matter."

Okay, so the Inspector was good at sniffing out bullshit. Which meant things were about to get very awkward, very quickly.

_Ding-a-ling!_

"Oh, come on," muttered the barkeep. "I thought you were supposed to be 'confined to quarters', and all that jazz."

"Eh, it got boring after a while," said Dr. Hikari, hands resting easily in the pockets of his labcoat, still sporting his unflappable grin. "Besides, this kind of felt like the place to be tonight, know what I mean?"

"No, but that's hardly ever stopped you before."

"Aw, c'mon, I thought you'd enjoy the company."

"I have plenty of it tonight," the barkeep growled, jabbing his finger towards the corner.

Subaru forced himself not to react, though he still heard War Rock's stunned noise in his ear. It was the man they'd found that afternoon way back when the Jammer had possessed the taxi. His leg should've been crushed into powder, and, yet, there he was.

"Good evening!" the man called good-naturedly towards the Inspector and Subaru. "Nice night, huh?"

The Inspector grinned. Finally, a straight-shooter. "Not bad, but it's a bit late for a social visit, isn't it?"

The doctor (his dress certainly suggested a physician, though they'd been the geek's answer to signature dress for a couple of centuries) chuckled pleasantly. "Not for this guy," he chuckled, jabbing his thumb at the barkeep, whose scowl - if at all possible - darkened. "This is the only time I get to see him regularly - he spends all day wandering about who-knows-where."

"Bull," muttered the barkeep. "I just like my solitude. That's why I took this job. Nobody around to bug me."

"Oh, yeah, I totally agree," said the doctor, irony quirking a smile. "You get to be alone and miserable for a couple hours when everybody else is sound asleep. I go out of my way to get you this nice little job where you can sulk and be lonely, and this is how you thank me? Cossacks don't make much good friend stock, do they?"

"Have you got a point to make?" asked the bartender (Subaru, from across the room, shivered at the threatening tone).

"Just wanted to check whether or no you delivered my stuff to our... buddy," said the doctor. "Didn't feel like annoying him needlessly."

"Oh, so it's okay if it's me? Thanks," muttered the barkeep, who picked up a glass and began to polish it. "Don't worry, Silverhead's got it."

"Cool," said the doctor. "Oh, and how about one of those latte frappucinos, huh? I could use something sweet."

The doctor seemed blissfully unaware of the glare boring into the back of his skull as he turned around and sauntered over to the only two customers in the joint. "Mind if I join you two? I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Not at all," said the Inspector. "Me and the kid here were just talking some color theory. He's quite the artist. Still got a ways to go, though," he added with a sidelong glance at Subaru.

Subaru wasn't sure quite how to feel about the Inspector covering for him.

"Color theory, huh?" said the man. "Sounds interesting. Oops! My bad, I'm being rude. Dr. Hikari, at your service," he introduced himself, extending a hand - Heiji shook it firmly and introduced himself, while Subaru wasn't nearly so quick.

"The kid's shy," Heiji offered with a shrug. "Makes a solid friend, though. We're waiting for him to show up, speaking of.

"You said your a doctor?" he said after a moment. "Doctor as in teacher, or doctor as in physician?"

The newcomer grinned. "A bit of both. You could call me freelance. I sometimes work at the hospital and sometimes you can find me teaching class somewhere."

"A freelance physician?" said Heiji skeptically. "You pulling my chain?"

"Nah," said the doctor, offering him what looked like a small business card (people still had those?). "Makes it easier to do housecalls. I can put you in touch with the head of Beach if you need someone to vouch for me."

"Maybe I'll do that," chuckled Heiji, accepting the small rectangle of paper. "Sounds like Beach has a lot to worry about nowadays."

"I'll say," sighed the doctor. "I wish somebody would figure out this bizarre heat wave."

Subaru had said nothing up till this point, though he stirred at something in the doctor's voice. Not long after he'd had that conversation with Luna, he'd taken another look at a readout of Kodama. With seven beacons up, the heat spreading farther and farther across the countryside - with a series of bizarre, irregular spikes radiated throughout. Well, irregular to the average person - Subaru had spent so much time wandering the Wave Road that he knew not only the layout of the local area perfectly, but also every exit and entrance... and he'd known from the instant he saw the newest readout that each spike was centered on a Wave Hole.

What worried him most was that Subaru was starting to hear the same melody he heard from the beacon issuing from the Wave Holes as RockMan. The Visualizer had no information to output on the new behavior, though in his more exhausting night watches, he liked to pretend the computerized voice sounded highly annoyed because of it.

"We got an interesting call the other day," Dr. Hikari spoke up suddenly, startling Subaru's wandering mind back to attentinon. "There was a woman in town who'd been found lying in her bed, delirious and dehydrated... a Mrs. Ushijima, I think it was. She kept mumbling something about monstrous lizards with flaming tails. She's okay, now she's been getting the rest and fluids she hadn't had enough of. Another day or two and she can go home."

Subaru felt relief crashing through him, as the doctor had provided the first good news he'd had in a long week. Of course, that was assuming the doctor knew the news was relevant to him at all. And suddenly Subaru's neck hairs were on edge.

"Lizard monsters?" Heiji mused, likewise wondering why the doctor was mentioning this. "Sounds like something out of a video game."

"You're one to talk," chuckled Dr. Hikari. "Doesn't the police department have an anti-virus squad?"

Heiji groaned. "Don't remind me. Little buggers have been nice and quiet for a while."

"I remember," said the doctor. "They were seriously agitated a while ago - did you guys ever figure out what happened to that cab?"

"Somebody hacked it," said Heiji indifferently. "Guy's in jail. Good lord, people need to learn how to drive on their own. Saves me the trouble of smacking them whenever an autocar goes off the rails."

"Eh, I bike," said the doctor, shrugging. "Or walk. I never strain myself if I have go very far.

"So," he asked after a moment, "is there a private party going on? I keep feeling awkward when I see all those cops out here," he said, glancing through the dim windows.

"We got an order from downtown that we were supposed to come here and wait. Somebody sent in an anonymous tipoff that got some very important people agitated. So, because it totally makes sense to, we've been ordered to maintain a show of presence, because the Raider obviously won't notice us."

Dr. Hikari raised an eyebrow. "Ah, I see," he said, looking thoughtfu. "He supposed to show up soon?"

"Well, somebody certainly thinks he won't care," said Heiji, glaring out through the window at the banality of it all. "I don't know whether it's a good thing if he does or not, at this point."

"If he does plan on showing up," said the barkeep, sauntering over, "he's certainly poor about punctuality." (The doctor opened his mouth to shoot another tease at him, though decided against it when he saw the glare). "The kid's been here every night for the past week or so."

Subaru didn't say anything, instead sipping mildly from his coffee. He mildly noted that War Rock was being awfully quiet. Not that he could blame him - the doctor wigged him out, too.

"Seriously?" said Heiji, raising a grizzled eyebrow. "You got something against sleep, kid?"

"Catnaps," said Subaru. "Half an hour here, half an hour there."

Of course, his body hadn't rewired itself yet to Subaru's new schedule, which was why he was very grateful that the last red roof in town happened to serve coffee.

Perhaps the doctor took some pity on him, or maybe he just decided needling a teenager wasn't worth it - in either case, he'd decided to change the subject. "So, did anybody here what happened to the Hayamis?"

"The Haya-? Oh, the family who ran Saloma's Garden?" Heiji said. "They've relocated. They bought a new store recently, finally decided on expanding."

"Oh, cool," said the doctor. "They're friends of mine - haven't had a chance to speak with them in a while, though. I've been out of the country for a few years," he explained. "I've been rather bad about keeping in contact."

"Well, they seem fine enough to me," Heiji said noncommitally. "They don't know anything about the Raider, so all we've had to go on is where exactly the color red is in town."

"I'm surprised there's any left," Dr. Hikari said. "I don't think the local roofing industry has ever had such a financial boon."

"Chicken, the lot of 'em," said the bartender.

"Please, you're just doing this because you wanted a crack at the Raider, yourself," chuckled Dr. Hikari. "Whassamatter, bored?"

"You'd better believe it. Haven't had much of a good fight in years. Though maybe I'd better take a number?" he added, casting an eye at Subaru, who was simply eyeing the dwindling level of coffee.

"Just saying this 'cause I oughta, being paid for it and all," said the inspector, "but vigilantiism isn't too fondly looked on around here."

"It's not vigilantiism if I beat up the guy who makes the mistake of torching my place," answered the bartender. "That's what I'm paid for, besides."

Subaru noticed for the first time there was a long, thin, black stick the bartender was holding under his arm - and he highly doubted it was a walking cane.

"Paid for? You own this cafe," the doctor laughed. "You only stay here all night to keep vandals from turning it into their own canvas. Your like a vampire bat."

"Don't start with me, pretty boy," warned the barkeep, twirling the stick experimentally.

"I'm not going to ask," said Goyouda, and then the group of four were suddenly interrupted by the wail of a police siren. Subaru hissed and grabbed for some napkins, trying to mop up the coffee he'd spilled in his lap. "DAMMIT, SAKURAKO! Excuse me, Gentlemen, I need to go shoot my lieutenant."

The doctor bemusedly sidestepped as the grizzled old detective stalked past him and out the door. They could hear Heiji's growling from the street outside. ("I was startled, Inspector! There was something in the alley- uh, could you please put down the gun? Pretty please? Okay, not there. PLEASE, not there.")

"Sounds like things are about to get interesting," the bartender added as an aside to the doctor before returning to his place behind the bar. He put down the glass and then pulled up his probably-not-a-walking-cane and began to polish it, instead. "What are you planning on doing?" he called over.

"I was just planning on getting a good look around, mainly to make sure you'd delivered the, ah, package. Wouldn't do to have it all burn if something went wrong, you know. Printers are expensive, nowadays."

Printers, Subaru wondered, as in PAPER?

"Yeah? I was using the present tense, I believe."

"Maybe I'll stick around, maybe not," said the doctor. "I dunno. I've been kind of bored, lately."

The bartender raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I'm giving you my Christmas list early, this year. The thing I want most from you is a STRAIGHT EFFING ANSWER. God, it's like I'm pulling teeth."

Dr. Hikari chuckled again at this. "Hey, I enjoy being on the inside of the loop. It's a rare experience, keeping somebody else out."

"I never kept you out!"

"You never had a loop to keep me out of."

"EXACTLY! Again, I say, it's like I'm pulling teeth!"

Hikari laughed again, quite fully. "Good point. I'll try and be less sideways with you. It's kind of hard to break the habit, nowadays, though."

The bartender harrumphed and tossed some of his oily, petroleum black hair back over his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going for a front row seat or a backstage pass?"

"See? It's fun!"

"Oh, shut up and get lost," muttered the bartender.

BANG. BANGBANGBANG.

"The hell was that?" demanded Inspector Goyouda's gruff voice, immediately seizing the bartender's, the doctor's, and Subaru's attention. There was a crash, several more gun shots, and suddenly Heiji's patrol light went off, its wail echoing throughout the district. And then the patrol car furthest from the group exploded.

"Wait for it..." muttered the barkeep.

BZZT: The lights suddenly all blinked out, leaving them in what would have been darkness if not for the freakish dance of the flames from the fuel tank. "Called it. Sheesh, shouldn't they have figured to put the lights out, first?"

The doctor merely chuckled. "What, you want them to learn from their mistakes?"

"I'd like competent opponents, yes."

Something large and black rushed along the wall, and whether or not it was the proper object or its shadow, Subaru couldn't tell. The squad couldn't either, judging from another sudden round of gunfire. "Inspector, did you see that?"

"I saw it, I saw it! Get down!"

"How many did you catch, just now?" asked the bartender, setting down his cloth and twirling the stick again, which Subaru was beginning to think he owned more for its martial potential than anything else. He tucked it under his arm and moved to the door. "I got three, but I'm quite a while out of practice."

"Never knew you were one to put odds to a fight," chuckled the doctor. "But, yeah, three's about right. I count four, mind you."

Three? Four? Subaru had only seen one shadow. Or thing.

"See you in a bit," said the bartender, straightening up and stepping easily out into the early morning air. "Good thing this isn't much of a residential district, huh? Shame ol' silverhead isn't joining in. No, you can't invite him," he added, threateningly.

The doctor nodded. "Looks like we'll have our hands full tonight. Eesh, he's really looking forward to this," he sighed after the bartender had stepped out of earshot. "And what exactly have you been wasting time for?" he added suddenly, looking straight at Subaru. "The main event's still coming, right?"

Subaru jolted. "Wh- How...?"

"Kid, you're going to have to seriously stop believing in coincidences, someday," said the doctor with a chuckle. "Now, we'll buy you some time. Go and get dressed, would you?"

And then Subaru was alone, wondering what the Hell was happening.

"I could ask the same," War Rock added, speaking for the first time in hours. "Exactly /what/ is going on on this planet?"

"Don't ask," muttered Subaru, rubbing his temples. "I dunno. Crap, and I never got to finish my coffee."

"No one else did, either," War Rock pointed out as Subaru got up. "So, what now?"

"Well, you heard him," Subaru muttered, "Taurus is going to show up soon. Did that thing before look like a Jammer to you?"

"It most definitely _felt_ like one," replied War Rock. "Though something was noticeably different. And I believe the human said there were three of them? I was under the impression that there was only one."

"Oh, great," Subaru muttered. "They're better at figuring these things out than you are? Exactly what do I keep you around for again?"

War Rock made a growling noise, but fell silent as Subaru reached the door - he'd learned to recognize Subaru engaged in banter whenever he was nervous. The police squad was concentrated mostly off to one side, peering into whatever alleyways they could see. Subaru snuck from the door along the window, and then around the first alley he could reach.

He immediately cursed his luck, wishing he'd finished this last week when he'd had the chance.

* * *

Gonta awoke.

He was sprawled across his bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Wildly, he bolted up and jerked his head back and forth to find everything where he had left it. He was tense for another few seconds and then slumped forward in exhaustion. He'd awoken from another night of flame and fear - a nightmare so alive that he was afraid that he might not be able to tell the difference if he were ever caught in a real fire. The massive heat spike probably wasn't helping.

"You awake, yet?"

Gonta yelped and jumped to his feet. He seized the nearest object he could reach and whirled around, aiming his old baseball bat at the intruder sitting on the windowsill.

The only light in the room came from the moon outside, so the figure, facing inwards, enjoyed the advantage of a shadowy visage. "Calm down, big guy, no one's going to hurt you. Well, I'm not. Can't speak for everyone, here."

"E-Everyone?" Gonta whimpered, looking surreptitiously over his shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

The figure paused for a moment, and then shrugged. "Nevermind. Look, I just came by to talk."

"What do you want with me?" demanded Gonta, much more bravely than he actually felt.

"I said to calm down! I'm not here to hurt you, I just wanted to ask you about what you've been up to these past few weeks."

Gonta froze - it felt as though every bone in his body had turned to solid ice, even if he had no clue why or how. The stranger's words seemed to penetrate him so easily he had to wonder if a spirit had come to haunt him. "Wh- Why do you want to know?"

"Because I need to know if you know what you've been up to. Big things are happening, Ushijima, and you're at the center of it all."

Gonta bit his lip, wondering what the figure was talking about. "I'm lost. What do you mean, big things?"

"You've been watching the news, haven't you?"

"What, you mean the Raider?" wondered Gonta, more curious than anything else. "What, are you accusing me of being the Raider?"

"To keep it simple, yes, I am," said the figure. "But things aren't simple here, now, are they?"

Anger surged through Gonta, thick and hot. What the hell did this freak want? "Seriously? You're seriously accusing me of being the Raider? You must be nuts!"

"Maybe I am," said the figure. "But something's been going wrong in town, and it all leads to you."

"What the hell does that mean?" demanded Gonta. "What are you talking about? I couldn't be the Raider!"

"Why not?"

"W-Well, I'm here, first off! How could I have gotten to all those places at night, first off, and second, why the hell would I have set off all those fires?"

There was a very long, very heavy silence in the room for a moment. "Gonta, you've been having nightmares, again," said the figre after a moment. "I'm going to ask what about."

Ironically, Gonta was feeling very, very cold. "W-Well, that doesn't matter, what I'm having nightmares about! It's none of your business, anyway!"

"They say nightmares can be caused by a guilty conscience," said the person from the window. "And you have this bizarre thing where you keep telling someone to stop during them."

"It's- It's nothing! Too much TV," Gonta whimpered.

"How's your mother, Ushijima?"

Gonta startled so badly he dropped his bat.

He knew. Oh, God, he knew.

"Wh- What are you talking about?" he demanded, his voice quavering. "Nothing's wrong! NOTHING!"

"How loud are you going to scream?" the figure asked. "You might wake her, you know. Unless you know whether she will be coming up or not."

Gonta seized his bat and swung it hard, only to smash it against the frame of his window - it had passed right through the figure. "What's the matter, Ushijima?"

"You don't talk about my mother," Gonta grunted, his eyes losing focus for a moment. "NOTHING'S WRONG WITH MY MOTHER."

"We're not talking about whether anything's wrong with _your mother_. We're talking about whether something's wrong with /you/."

"NOTHING'S WRONG WITH ME!" Gonta screamed. "NOTHING!"

"Well, now we both know you're lying," said the figure. "Goodness, Iinchou won't be happy about that, will she?"

"I-Iinchou?" Gonta repeated, his voice quavering something fierce. "She knows?"

"She wonders," said the figure. "She thinks-"

"She thinks I'm the Raider," muttered Gonta, staring down at the floor. "Sh- She thinks I did all that?"

"I didn't say that. Oy, I didn't say that!"

"Sh- She think's I- that I-"

"No!" shouted the figure, jumping from the frame and seizing Gonta's nightshirt. "Get a grip! She doesn't think that at all!"

"She d- doesn't?"

_She does._

The voice was quiet, but very, very clear in the midnight air.

"No," said the figure, raising his voice. "She's never thought that! She's worried about you!"

"W-Worried?" murmured Gonta, his eyes wavering.

"Yes, she knows something's wrong, and-"

_She knows._

"She knows... about me?" whimpered Gonta - and his eyes drifted away from the figure, staring into space.

"No, she doesn't!" shouted the figure - the heat in the room was rising, his time was running out. "She knows something's wrong, but she has no idea what! That's why she's been keeping an eye on you, in case you need her help!"

_She's been watching you._

"N-No," muttered Gonta. "No..."

_She suspects you._

"Oy! Stay with me!"

_She hates you._

"Don't listen, dammit!" Subaru cried, shaking Gonta, whose eyes had rolled so far back into his head he feared they might plummet into his skull. "He's tricking you!"

_She loathes you._

"It- It's not true!" Gonta's strangled voice gurgled.

_She despises you._

"That's right, Gonta," Subaru said encouragingly. "She wants to help you. C'mon, fight it! Fight him off!"

_She thinks you're worthless._

"Dammit, shut up! Gonta!"

Gonta was swaying, what little light his eyes had gained dimming once more.

_She wants to be rid of you._

"You know that's not true!"

_She found a new vassal._

"Gonta! Gonta, don't listen!" What the hell, he was a /vassal/, now?

_She sent him to stop you._

"No! Gonta, wake up! C'mon, dammit!"

_She sent him to kill you._

"Gonta!"

_She's wrong._

And then light returned to Gonta's eyes, and suddenly his massive hands caught RockMan by the arm and smashed him against the wall. Caught by the throat, Subaru suddenly had an excellent view of Gonta's face - his eyes were glowing red. With a bellow, Gonta hurled RockMan across the room like a doll, where he slammed into the opposite wall, crumpling into a heap at the floor.

"So, is this how you operate?" demanded Gonta with a voice that wasn't his. "You come to slay my host in his sleep?"

"Well, no," War Rock grunted as Subaru righted himself. "We were trying to exorcise you and _then_ kill you. We had no intention of harming your host."

"Shame," said Gonta in Taurus Fire's voice. "You should have tried to kill us; removing our threat completely might have saved this miserable planet from ruin."

_"Denpa Henkan! Ushijima Gonta, On Air!"_

There was a sudden blaze of fire, engulfing the boy in the center of the room. His body rose - levitating - off the ground until his body was dangling limply in mid-air. His arms and legs spread out and suddenly, there was another flash of light, and armor for a much larger body was shimmering into existence around him. It slipped into place with a might crash, and flames jetted out of the opposite sides of the monstrous form's head, fusing into cold, hooked metal.

Armor and horns gleaming in the moonlight, Taurus Fire had appeared, so massive he could barely fit in the room. "It begins tonight."

Subaru hissed and sprang into a crouching position, prepared to leap away. "Taurus, what do you want?"

"You come all this way to see me and you aren't even sure what I want?" demanded Taurus Fire before bursting into laughter. "My goodness, War Rock, your host does leave a great deal to be desired."

"I find I can count on him every now and again," War Rock said quietly. "I have no particular fear that he should rebel."

"Rebel?" laughed Taurus Fire. "He hardly seems to have the strength to do much at all, let alone fight either of us off. Now, Gonta, here - he's a strong boy." He gestured to the armor coating his chest, or probably at Gonta, whose body he engulfed. "There is a great power within him, quiet as it is. He's not had much chance to take advantage of it, sadly, having been twisted to weaker, more useless ends in his youth.

"Oh, don't worry, allow me to elaborate," he interjected when Subaru opened his mouth. "You see, I haven't enslaved Gonta. Quite the opposite. We've made a deal." Taurus Fire was speaking so calmly and eloquently that Subaru had to wonder whether or no he was justified in his belief that none could challenge him. A lucky clip of his horn suddenly seemed like much less of an achievement.

"You see, the girl - Iinchou, he calls her - relies on him quite a bit to get the job done. And Gonta is very loyal to her - she's something of a queen among their class, it seems. The problem is Gonta's been making the mistake of not thinking some of his actions through and has caused something of a diminishing of his own worth in Iinchou's eyes.

"Well, there's a young man whose attention she seeks to gain that she can return him to their school, but he's been rude and hardly as forthcoming as he ought to be. In fact, his behavior has been quite uncouth, almost vulgar, towards her - which Gonta's loyalty has no tolerance for. His instincts to stand up and defend her were sadly thwarted, however, by Iinchou herself. Indeed, Gonta had never been given such criticism before, even at his worst. Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, Gonta was not entirely thrilled with this development, and, with Iinchou threatening to abandon him, he fell into quite a state of misery."

"Which is where you came in, I suppose?" said Subaru.

"Very good, Human. I see your primitive brain is not entirely hollow.

"Now, I had come to Earth chasing after the fugitive engulfing your arm, I admit that. It was only my duty, seeing as he stands guilty of the highest treason. But I found myself sidetracked by a child, and saw he had great potential to actualize. A few words, and we struck our accord - he grants me his body to use as a vessel, and I help him achieve his true potential. Actually," he added after a beat, "I'm more than fulfilling my end of the bargain - when I finish with him, Ushijima Gonta will conquer peoples beyond the scope of your imagination."

"And I suppose he'll be back in time for mother to call for supper?" Subaru joked, unable to think of anything else.

Taurus Fire snorted heavily, a small stream of flame shooting from his nostrils and dissipating. "Do not speak of that disgusting woman. Humans are such miserable creatures it defies logic - it offends it! Her own child suffers for years and she can do no more but sink ever deeper into her own miserable quagmire of self-pity and liquids. Why Gonta concerns himself with her welfare is beyond me."

Subaru wasn't entirely sure what to think - Taurus actually sounded a little upset over it. Subaru had known from Luna that Gonta's mother drank, but that Taurus knew - that Taurus actually seemed to be offended by it - blew his mind. "Yeah, well, you get all kinds, here. Speaking of, you're not exactly trying to keep your voice down. Why, exactly, has his mother not noticed?"

Taurus snorted again, the second stream of fire dangerously close to the carpeted floor. "She fears for her life. There is a guard of Meramanders swarming about her room, though they will not harm her. Still, she finds them fearsome and spends her nights covered with her bedsheets. During the day, she catches up on what sleep she missed, unaware of whether or not the monsters she sees are real or hallucinations."

"Wait - has she been there this whole time?"

Taurus gave a low grumble of annoyance. "Gonta insists on bringing her food and water, though she rarely eats nowadays. She has not had much of her liquids, water or otherwise, since - she is too frightened and tired to leave the sactuary of her room. Whatever noises she hears from beyond her door do not concern her."

Whatever positive interest Subaru had gained in Taurus Fire plummetted, bottoming out far lower than where it had been when Taurus was an invisible terror. "Fantastic. So sorry, but I find elements of your story hard to believe. Gonta doesn't actually seem to be onboard with what you're planning. He doesn't exactly seem to know what you've been up to these past few weeks, Taurus, and I'm starting to wonder if he'd let you if he did."

Taurus growled with slight discontent. "He fears. He understands that he has potential, but he cannot see beyond its depth without drawing back. He has no will to rebel against what I offer him, so he forces himself into a subconscious state whenever I need to act. But he will learn, even if I must force him into wakefulness, he will learn!"

"What?" said War Rock, startling them both. "Why is it so imperative that he learn anything at all, Taurus? That doesn't sound like you at all. Indeed," he continued, slowly, "you seem to be treading lighter than should be expected - sending only subordinates out to cause chaos, taking such an interest in your sleeping host... What hold does your puppet hold on you, Taurus? What, has he bound you?"

"Bind?" Subaru asked.

"Yes," said War Rock, Taurus' silence apparently confirming his suspicions. "Taurus Fire is a joint form, as is RockMan. It requires the participation of both parties, and Taurus does not have Gonta's will or participation - perhaps he never truly did. In either case, as Taurus Fire, Gonta becomes only so much dead, useless weight, preventing Taurus from wielding the power he knows he should."

Taurus raged aloud, another stream of flame shooting out. "Silence, traitor! I will not have you mocking me. This form has been limited, though only because the boy does not find his courage. But he will soon see how great his power is."

"When you summon your army and show him the force you both command," realized Subaru. "Uh huh. So, tell me, Taurus - what exactly does commanding an army have to do with winning back Iinchou's favor?"

"When the beacon is finished, he will be beyond such petty things as a powerless queen. Indeed, perhaps she will come to worship _him_ instead!"

"Why do you sound like you're trying to convince us?" Subaru asked. "If you couldn't convince Gonta with that, I highly doubt you'll succeed with either me or War Rock. Eesh, I have no particular interest in anything to do with that woman."

"Liar."

"_Shut up._"

"It doesn't matter!" bellowed Taurus Fire. "Gonta will come awake, and soon! He must!"

"Uh huh," said Subaru. He'd been planning on saying something a little more biting, but setting Taurus Fire off in Gonta's home would probably not be a good thing. "Okay, so I've gotten most of what I wanted to know from you. I have just one question left."

Flames were leaking almost regularly from the nozzle of Taurus Fire's snout. "Perhaps I do not wish to answer?"

"Perhaps you do, because maybe nobody here is sure what's going on," Subaru retorted. "So, these beacons you've been setting up. You plan on using them to summon your army, right?"

Taurus glared fiercely at Subaru. "And a truly glorious army it will be. Your world will burn like never before."

"Eh," muttered Subaru with a shrug. "Maybe I watch too much TV, but Tokyo is always burning, it seems. Sheesh, chill with the eyes, Cow Burn. It was a joke. All I want to know is why the design is off."

There was a pause, and then...

"Off?" repeated Taurus, sounding almost (almost) hesitant. "Impossible. There could be no mistake in my design. I do believe I know how to summon my own army."

"It's off, Cow Burn," said War Rock, his grin more heard than seen in the dark room. "Unless, of course, I know more about how to summon your army than you do." Perhaps as a flourish, he summoned the diagram he had shown Subaru several weeks prior.

Taurus snorted, yet again a near miss from the carpet. (Was Gonta somehow screwing with that, too)? "Impossible. That is my design - the beacons have exactly placed where they need to be."

"Sorry, big guy, but you really oughta check your work," said Subaru. "THIS is what you've been designing." War Rock summoned the second wavescreen, with the points all askew... but never more than a few blocks away, Subaru suddenly noticed.

Taurus seethed at the second picture. "Impossible. I planned out the pattern beforehand - exact in location and power! Just strong enough to reach my own army."

"So you wanted all the credit, is that it?" War Rock interjected. "You leave as Taurus, chief Invader, and return as Taurus Fire, mightiest of all and favorite of High King Cepheus? You'd be gone and back before anyone knew where you were or how to find you, is that it? You had to leave your army behind to catch up with me, but you ended up leaving it a fair bit closer than your home planet."

Taurus snorted again, not entirely sure who was more infuriating at the moment, War Rock or his miserable host. "Very good, War Rock," he said at length, deciding to turn his attention to his original target. "But part of that glory will consist of your head and your stolen treasure."

"Except maybe now you'll have to worry about the other generals horning in on your glory," Subaru pointed out. "We know your design is out of wack. Maybe you've been off balance with actually making the beacons, too? Has Gonta seen any maps of what you've been doing?"

Taurus seethed again. "Impossible," he insisted, now noticably unsure. "The design is flawless. There's no possible reason it could be off."

"Maybe you were just a bull seeing red," Subaru suggested.

There was a sudden, freezing silence - Taurus Fire and War Rock had both gone very still.

"What?" demanded Subaru. "What's wrong now?"

"RockMan, say that again," said War Rock, very slowly.

"What, about bulls and red? It's a bit of a myth, but it's supposed to drive them nuts."

"How do you know that?"

Subaru wasn't quite sure about how he felt being the sudden center of attention. "Well, there are sporting events from a few hundred years ago called bull fights, where men would essentially go and agitate bulls with bright red capes. The red capes stood out so much, most people started thinking the bulls would actually get upset at the color red."

"You say that like they don't."

Subaru shrugged. "Some myths like to live on. A good number of people still think that it's red that gets bulls going. If I remember right, it's really the motion that sets them off, but most people don't think enough about it to notice, so they still think that red... sets... them off..." Subaru's voice trailed off with dawning realization.

"Well, it seems the answer to the mystery is a bit less extraordinary than I thought," War Rock said quietly.

"What?" demanded Taurus loudly. "What is it? Out with it!"

"You _are_ having trouble with your host, I see," War Rock noted. "In his subconscious state, not only does he make it harder for you to control your joint form, he also appears to influence your thoughts."

"Impossible!" shouted Taurus Fire, actually seizing a hold of RockMan and dangling him from the window. "I am in control! There are no flaws in my plan!"

"Yes," coughed Subaru, struggling to keep his voice steady, "there are. Big ones, too."

With a furious cry, Taurus flung RockMan away, smashing him gracelessly into the asphault below.

"Be wary of his temper," said War Rock, who sounded as though he only had to worry about slight dizziness. "He tends to lose track of his surroundings when pressed too hard."

"No shit?" Subaru groaned, coming to his senses just in time to see Taurus leap from Gonta's second story room. But, while Subaru expected him to come crashing through the wall, Gonta's latent limit seemed to kick in a second time, forcing Taurus to simply phase through it. It didn't last, however, as it was a very mad, very, very _solid_ Taurus Fire that landed.

"Aw, come on," Subaru groaned. "Work in _our_ favor, dammit."

* * *

"Hello, human," said the Jammer. "Come to die?"

Subaru hissed and dodged aside as the Jammer Punch swung out like a club and smashed into the dumpster, crumpling it as though it were made of cardboard. "Impressive speed, human. Perhaps you would make an apt Jammer."

"Screw you," muttered Subaru, dodging between its legs. The Jammer was too large to enjoy Subaru's ease of motion in the increasingly cramped alleyway, giving Subaru the opportunity he needed. "DENPA HENKAN! Hoshikawa Subaru, On Air!"

Goyouda Heiji, down a block from Subaru's chosen alley, heard the shouting, indistinct over the sound of gunfire, and he hissed and shielded his eyes at the explosion of blue light that poured out of the back street. "The hell?"

"War Rock!" hissed the Jammer. "Traitor!"

"Pin-pon!" cried War Rock, immitating the winning noise on the gameshows, which were the only thing Subaru allowed him to watch. "Really, who did you think it would be!"

As RockMan, Subaru now had a clear advantage over the Jammer, including not only boosts to speed and physical power, but also Battle Cards. Subaru tilted his head aside, easily dodging as the Jammer launched its fist at him again, not even bothering to so much as flinch as he heard it crunch into the brick wall behind him. Well, standing here wasn't going to get him anywhere, and the Jammer blocked his way out, so the clearest course of action was to get the Jammer out. And for that, he would need one Hell of a push.

A quick glance down at the Battle Cards War Rock summoned put him in the best mood he'd had all week. He pressed his hand against the Jammer's chest and pushed.

"Ground Wave!"

Heiji, still looking at the corner where he'd seen the blue light, gaped as he saw what looked like some kind of massive robot fly backwards out of the alley and crashing, tumbling head over foot until it slammed against the wall on the opposite side.

"I keep forgetting how effective that is," Subaru noted, examining his hand mildly. The Ground Wave attack was a shock wave meant to travel through the ground, possibly with a mild arc to either side. Having no ground to launch it through, Subaru merely opted for the body of the target itself. However, the immediate explosive force necessary to launch the shockwave in the first place proved to be quite useful in close-quarters when Subaru wanted some distance.

The Jammer was all the proof necessary - as it got to its feet, Subaru could see wicked cracks running along its body, some strange light pouring out. For all the damage, it still seemed to move around easily, loading its distance weapon. "Jamming Vulcan!"

Heiji ducked down as the Jammer unleashed a spray of its gun into the alley at whatever had blasted it out. It seemed to have missed, as in the next instant a light blue /something/ rushed out and smashing against the Jamming a second time, ricocheting off of its staggering form and disappearing over the rooftops beyond as the monster crashed onto its back.

Heiji grinned as the Jammer hissed, clutching at the stump of its arm - so Kamen Rider was here... and with his Kung Fu Jumping Action, no less. "Oy, Lieutenant! Sakurako, stop staring and get over here!"

The younger man quickly dodged over and ducked behind the same car the Heiji had - some of the officers had turned their attention to the larger monster, though some remained looking into the other alleyways. "Inspector, what the hell is going on?"

"Beats me," Heiji chuckled, "but now we know what that convict meant when he said it was after him."

"Inspector!" cried one of the men. "Look out!"

Heiji shouted and shoved his associate away, leaping aside and tumbling as the flaming wreckage of the first cop car crashed down mercilessly atop the one he'd been hiding behind. When he got the chance to look around again, the robot-thing had disappeared. "Sakurako! You okay?"

More than okay, he looked excited.

"Oy, somebody call in support!" Heiji demanded. "Call it in!"

"No can do!" cried one of the men from a car. "There's no radio service!"

"Inspector!" called another. "Some wierd kind of noise is coming from the radio! Some kind of music!"

"Shit." And Heiji had little doubt at all that it had something to do with that monster. "Alright, I need two guys over here!"

The cafe where everyone had been gathered was actually the first floor of a two-story building, the other being the floor where the owner - its sole bartender - lived. While Subaru had originally dodged into the alley on the northside, Dr. Hikari had sauntered over into the opposite alleyway and moved to the roof by jumping onto the retracted fire escape after he made sure no one could see him and climbing quite easily up the side. Once he'd reached the top, he simply rested on the edge of the roof, watching the Inspector give orders while the boy, now in his official blue, blasted the Jammer out of the alleyway and promptly used him as a springboard.

"Good to know he's got a solid head on his shoulders. Now, where are you, big guy?" he asked, turning his head to look around at the dark row of buildings behind him. "Come out, come out, wherever you- nope, no touching!"

He ducked and jumped aside as something massive swept through the airspace where his head had been. "You know, it's rude to sneak up on people when you try to kill them, you know that?"

**"ROFL."** A voice, electronic and strange, was emanating from the dark shape that had taken his place on the roof, the only things properly lit were its red, LED-like eyes. **"WE R TEH L33T JAMZ0RS."**

"Oh, God," muttered the doctor.

If it was any consolation, his associate had to deal with one, too, as this particular Jammer was speaking in plural.

"Speak Japanese, Nerd!" roared the barkeep from the next roof over, smashing the cane he'd been polishing over his personal Jammer's head and confirming Dr. Hikari's musings. The fact that it didn't shatter into a million tiny pieces made the doctor wonder what, exactly, it was made of.

**"WE ROXOR U, THEN U AM CRY,"** bleeped the second Jammer dizzily. The barkeep smashed it over the head again, causing its eyelights to flicker.

"Seriously, shut up. Idiot."

Dr. Hikari chuckled, dodging another swing of his Jammer's fist. "Goodness, he hasn't had this much fun in a long time."

**"TEH ESCAPE IS IMPOSSIBLE,"** noted his Jammer, planting its feet and aiming the gun it had grown from his hand at the doctor. **"JAMMING VULCAN! ROFL ROFL ROFL!"**

"Points for enthusiasm," noted the doctor, sitting on the raised edge of the roof, several feet away from where the Jammer had fired. "Your marksmanship needs a little work, though."

The Jammer froze, staring around at the doctor - it was so stunned that it forgot how to speak l33t for a moment. **"HUH? YOU MOVED?"**

And then the doctor kicked it so hard it toppled over the edge of the roof furtest from the street and landed in a dumpster. "How are you holding up?" he called to the bartender, glancing over to see the flaming cop car fly into the air and, judging from the sound of its landing and the good Inspector shouting himself almost hoarse, crash on another.

"Just fine," called the barkeep, twirling the cane like a drum major and stabbing it to point at the alley between their buildings. "Knocked him down there."

The doctor hesitated. He sure hadn't _heard_ the second Jammer land. On a sudden suspicion, he looked over toward the corner of the roof where the fusebox was settled. "Oh, dear," he muttered. "They're smarter than we counted for!"

"The hell does that mean?" demanded the barkeep.

"It means they delayed knocking out the lights, but they apparently knew enough only to need to cut one wire! That sounds like they anticipated us."

The barkeep swore. "Is there a window?"

"A window?" Dr. Hikari looked at his friend in confusion.

"Yeah! On the wall of this building! Top floor?"

Dr. Hikari looked. "Yup!"

CRUNCH. Tearing easily through the rock and tarpaper, two massive black arms ripped upwards, each seizing a leg. The bartender looked down in disgust, probably at himself. "Ah, shit."

There was another crunch and the barkeep was yanked down below the roof, leaving Dr. Hikari without a companion.

Shame, thought the doctor. The kid in that Jammer had such a bright future ahead of him, too.

There was a bout of mad laughter and then the back wall of the floor exploded into brick and mortar, the Jammer launched headlong through it.

"Whatever happened to taking it easy?" called Dr. Hikari, aiming a reproving look at his associate. "We're trying _not_ to kill them!"

"Hey, he made the mistake of letting me get a read on him," called the Barkeep. "I only hit him as hard as he tried to hit me. Besides, be thankful I haven't got my gun!"

"Somebody's going to have to pay for that, you know."

"Big whoop. Not my problem."

There was a fwooshing noise, and then Dr. Hikari saw a bright red light emanating from the first floor of the building he was on. "Hey," he noted casually. "Your house is on fire."

"What the hell are you so calm about?" demanded the barkeep, climbing out of the gaping hole in the wall - he would've jumped down if not for the continuing stare of the doctor. "Oh, come on. Why can't I-"

"I thought you didn't care."

"I actually have to pay for that one!"

Dr. Hikari grinned. "Too bad. That's not your fight. _Your_ fight is at 5 o'clock, advancing quickly."

WHAM. The Jammer made a gurgling noise as the barkeep smashed him over the head with the cane a third time, dropping back down to the ground and clutching at its head. "I could totally hear him coming, thank you," growled the barkeep. "Stop preempting my fun."

The doctor sighed and rolled his eyes, and then suddenly dropped to the floor to avoid a spray of vulcan fire. "Would you like to trade?" he offered, bringing his feet together in a scissor kick and dropping his assailant. "This one certainly seems more of a fighter."

The barkeep grinned ferociously. "You're on!"

Without so much as looking like he was trying, he finished clambering up from the Jammer-sized hole in the wall onto the roof of his own building and then hopped over to the doctor's side. "Tag."

The doctor chuckled and took his friend's place on the second roof, feeling rather sorry for the Jammer.

"N00B," gurgled the Jammer on the ground, and Dr. Hikari had to admit with something akin to mild admiration that it took quite a deal of obstinancy to speak with such horrid grammar when your head had been almost caved in three times by a battle-happy bartender and his Yay-Funtime stick. **"PREPARE 4 TOTAL P_WHOAAA..."_**

It swayed uncertainly - apparently the knocks on its head were beginning to do their work. Well, if rising to its full height made it that dizzy, the doctor figured he might make it easier on everyone and come down to its level. "How're we feeling?" he asked encouragingly, dropping easily down beside the alien creature. "Your head okay?"

Apparently, the teenager this particular virus had infested was not used to concern, as it apparently took the view that Dr. Hikari was behaving condescendingly. **"WE OWNZ JOO!"** it roared, seizing ahold of the doctor and hoisting him aloft lke a rag doll. **"PREPARE 4 TOTAL PWN-"**

"Okay, that's quite enough," said the doctor as the Jammer leaned in close to leer at him. With a quick motion of his hand, his fingers sliced through the small aerial rising from the Jammer's head. "Go to sleep, kid. Dream of such happy things as syntax. And spelling."

The Jammer made a small gurgling noise again, and then crashed to the floor. Dr. Hikari's landing was much lighter, having forced the Jammer's hand open and slipped out. He watched the Jammer's eyes blink out and then the metallic body begin to peel away in pixellized strips to leave the young man beneath, drooling slightly. "Well, you probably get to look forward to quite the hangover in the morning," the doctor chuckled, propping the boy against the nearby wall.

**"WE R JAMZOR HOTNESS,"** crackled the second of the L33T Jammers loud enough for the doctor to hear it from the ground. **"ALL UR BASE R BELONG TO US! W00T! W00T! W00T! W000_OOOHAT EXACTLY IS THE CALIBER OF THAT GUN?_"**

Gun? Curious, the doctor clambered back up to the top of the roof and took a look for himself to see what exactly the Jammer was talking about.

"Where the hell did you get that?" he demanded.

Having planted his feet to steady himself, the barkeep was hefting a massive cylindrical length of metal, aiming it casally at the Jammer, whose eyelights had taken the shape of exclamation marks. "This? It's the gun I got from a tank in Sharo. Hey, do these things actually _have_ calibers?"

"You managed to get the whole gun of a Sharonian tank into Japan?"

"Yup."

"..._You?_"

"Hey!" growled the barkeeper. "Not funny! And, of course, I didn't bring the _whole_ gun. I found the parts in an old junkyard and had them shipped to Japan individually."

The doctor smacked his hand to his forehead. "I swear, one of these days..."

"Yeah, yeah," grunted the doctor. "Okay, Jammy, say goodnight."

KABOOM!

The barkeep yelped and toppled over, not due to the discharge of the cannon, but because the whole building the three were on was suddenly missing its bottom floor. With a cry, the three fell, caught in the wreckage of what had once been the cafe. Infuriated, the barkeep attempted to assuage his temper by smashing the remaining Jammer over the head with the massive firearm.

He missed, the tank cannon pitched with enough force to embed itself in the next building's wall. The lucky Jammer, who had managed to avoid most of the rubble, was nonetheless unable to get far away enough to escape, and it crumpled to the floor when the doctor beaned it with a piece of rubble, cracking its antenna off.

"Ah, hell," growled the bartender petulantly, as the Jamming virus peeled away from its host and flew away. "What happened? I thought you said he should be able to handle this on his own."

"He should have," the doctor noted, and the fact that he hadn't meant something was very wrong. His face showing the first sign of worry it had all night, he glanced over to where a massive form was standing in the street, and then he grit his teeth.

"They've got hostages."

* * *

And finally, FINALLY I have Chapter 6.

I'm sorry it took so long - my attention tends to wander back and forth and I can't think of anything to write for long periods of time. I don't mean to keep you all waiting - and thank you, the few and the loyal, for reviewing.

Okay, first things first, we have a confirmed guess on Dr. Hikari's true identity. I'm not going to tell you, as those of you familiar with all the little notes and secrets of the series have probably pieced it together by this point - I'm not exactly trying to hide it, truth be told. (You can still PM me your guesses, which I'll confirm or deny, but I'll ask those of you who do know to sit tight in your superior knowledge and wait until Dr. Hikari finally decides to share how bad he is at keeping secrets).

My attention is with Project Kizuna, I swear, though I still have to worry about things like education, food, and that job I haven't got, yet, unfortunately.

Note on this chapter - as long as I went without inspiration, I had so much stuff to put in this chapter that I ended up splitting it in two - expect Chapter 7 to show up soon (I did this with Chapters 3 and 4 - the Stranger scene was originally one whole), though I refuse to give myself a deadline, because I hate those. SOON, I say. Oh, and just to point out - the Cossack barkeep is indeed the same guy who visited Dr. Hikari way back when. Yes, I plan on having him stick around - he's easy to write, and his Yay-Funtime stick (Official Name... maybe - I swear I'm going to produce a fanbook on all of this someday. Or a wiki.) is a neat weapon. As is his tank cannon. No, he hasn't told me how he managed to import it, either.

Side note: The Cossack barkeep is now a guessable personage, too, right up there with Dr. Hikari - and, yes, he is actually involved with the series. He's peripherally involved with the extended functionality of Black Ace and Red Joker (most of which North America didn't get, unfortunately - they sealed it off), though not in the way I have him. I made him more involved with the earlier plot.

I know, I've mentioned to at least one of you, I planned on finishing up the Taurus Fire arc in this chapter, but Taurus just won't fit in the box, so he's got the next one. He should be done, pretty soon, though. Should. Someone could pull something brilliant out of his (my) butt at the last minute and shock everybody, I dunno.

Whenever I write, I like listening to music - I've written a number of battles to music, in fact. So far, the most fun idea I've had is lisening to KCB's Shooting Star (which was used in the japanese advetising for Black Ace/Red Joker, find it on YouTube if you can).

I wanted to put in something about Gonta's father in this chapter, but I couldn't pull it off like I wanted to, I'm afraid, largely because if I wanted to do it without sounding too "Oh, wait, there's more!" I would have to go and seed older chapters with updates, which was too much effort for me to do and too much time and pain for you to go back and dig them all up.

Oh, I just remembered - last chapter I refered to something called Mahajarama, a world-wide chain of curry stores (don't ask me how anyone could successfully pull that off). This was a blunder - "Mahajarama" is the original name of Wily's top operative in the original Battle Network game - his name was changed to "Yahoot" for reasons I can only imagine had little to do with political correctness. Anyway, in the anime, Mahajarama and the other three WWW ops opened up a curry joint named "Maha Ichiban" in Japan, eventually opening up a second store named "Maha Niban" in I think it was Jyawaii (the billboard in the anime had it spelled "Jyawaii", so that's how I spell it). Trivia/Note for the Uninformed: Ichi and Ni are the Japanese equivalents of One and Two.

And I'm not sure what the relation is between Jyawaii and Alohaha. And, just to get all of my islander trivia out of the way, Kenta Yagi (Kidd Gruff) is apparently Alohahan. Not sure how that works out.

One last note on characters: Sakurako is the name of the lieutenant directly under Goyouda. In order to remove as much of his Original Character stigma, I've put him into the bloodline of the Sakurako clan, which makes him a descendant of a rather klutzy maid of Yai's from the anime. I have this thing about original characters, for some reason (to many self-insert fics, I guess), so I'm trying to horn them all in as far as I can by making them relevant, half-original characters, like Kizamaro's dad.

Also, one last personal note: I try to write decent stories that are well organized, but the most practice I've gotten at them is largely in the very short stories department, so I'm new to the novel format. I have fun writing action scenes, though, which I haven't had much opportunity for, previously, so there's that. I hope they're not too bad.

P.S. I want to apologize for the L33T JAMZ0RS invading near the end, there. Just my own small tribute to the banality of the internet - is anyone who reads this actually familiar with l33t enough to correct my syntax and such? Quick poll: who liked the JAMZ0RS and who wanted them to die? (Don't worry, I'm not going to be hurt).


	7. Voodoo

Subaru was _not_ in a particularly fantastic mood this morning. Prodigious physical and mental exhaustion combined exquisitely with the creeping stench of Utter Fail that had followed him home only a few hours ago to mix into a Misery Smoothie... and Subaru hated smoothies, so that was enough with the metaphor.

Likewise not abetting the ascendant motility of his disposition was that blasted noise issuing from the ground level that indicated someone was at the door. Groaning, and drooling a little, to boot, Subaru found himself being roused not only by the jingle of the tone but by his personal alarm clock. "Son of Daigo, the doorbell is ringing."

"Thanks, War Rock," Subaru sighed, wiping drowsy spittle from his chin and dragging on an unbuttoned shirt. He felt the comet tail erupting from his head - well, erupting gave it perhaps a tad too much credit. Between a lack of upkeep over the last few hours and being mashed into the pillow, it looked rather droopy and tired - a good deal like him, he joked weakly, too tired to crack a smile, which was partially due to his rather sore jaw, but that was another story.

It was a bleary trip down the stairs that Subaru made at five-thirty in the morning, though he was quickly roused into a more wakeful state when he tripped and collapsed at the foot of the stairs. Cursing, he got back up and made his staggering way over to the door, which was ringing. Again. And again.

Whoever was at the door had better be ready for some choice words.

The urgent ringing continued, though Subaru had no fear that it would bother his mother, who happened to be the heaviest sleeper he knew, and was still passed out in her room, graceless as ever in her underwear, still as far gone as she had been when Subaru returned home, finding her snoring in front of some noir film she had no feasible interest in. He could only assume her sleep had deepened without the noise of her room's television.

As her room was around the corner and down the hall, Subaru didn't bother dealing with the elder woman as he approached the door. No way was he letting anyone in this early, he figured, and then he summoned a wavescreen to figure out just who, exactly, he was gonna cuss out this fine morning.

"Hello, Hoshikawa-san, it's good to see you ag-." Brrzzzzzzh. The screen burst into a mess of pixels and dissolved into thin air as Subaru punched a hole in it. With a huff, he turned around and headed for his room. He wasn't feeling particularly mature enough to deal with her at the moment. His still-twinging jaw from the smack she'd given him wasn't helping much.

_Ding-Dong!_

Nope.

_Ding-Dong!_

You wish, sister.

_Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong! Ding-Dong!_

"Go away!" demanded Subaru, wheeling around and glaring at the door.

"Hoshikawa-san," enunciated Shirogane Luna (with surprising clarity and force) from the other side of the doorway. "You're hardly being fair. I merely gave you a cordial greeting - there was no need to be so rude."

In exasperation, Subaru marched back over to the door and threw it open. "Go away," he ordered. "You aren't welcome on this property, and that counts as trespassing."

"Goodness me, you certainly know how to charm the opposite sex, don't you?" "Daunted" was a poorly-chosen adjective when describing Shirogane Luna. "Do you have a moment?"

"No," grunted Subaru, attempting to slam the door shut again, cursing his sleep-deprived mind for not thinking before he'd opened it, only to find it refused to close - it took him a moment to realize Luna had caught the door and, through what was apparently sheer force of will (no way those slim, manicured little fingers could have caught and held this thing on their own), was holding it open. "Damn it, go away!"

"Hoshikawa-san, apparently your education is worse than I thought. The proper response would be, 'Why no, Iinchou, I have plenty of time. After all, my days are largely spent here in my home, languishing about and feeling sorry for myself. I would be delighted to have your company! Please, come on in!'" And then, without missing a beat, "Why, thank you, Hoshikawa-kun, I think I will."

Luna of The Monstrous Arm Strength proceeded to throw the door fully open (Subaru was yanked aside with it and into the wall) and strolled gracefully in. "Why, what a lovely living room, Hoshikawa-san. So quaint."

War Rock retreated to a corner of the room near the ceiling, allowing himself a pleasant view. This would be entertaining.

Subaru shut the door, glaring venomously at the intruder as she allowed herself to settle onto the couch. "One phone call, and I could have you hauled off to court."

Luna allowed herself a smug little smile. "Are you sure? It sounds like the fees might be a bit over your head." And then there came a slightly wider smile. "Tell you what, if you can't afford it, I'll pay for the lawyer."

Subaru seethed. "What the hell do you want?"

"Glad to see you're awake bright and early, if only for reasons of spite and nothing else."

"I'm not awake, and it's not bright," Subaru muttered, gesturing out the window towards the cloudy sky (that's just what everyone needed today, humidity). "That's a D grade. Screw that, 33%'s an F."

"Hoshikawa-san, could you at least try to be civil, for courtesy's sake if not mine?"

"No. I'm tired and going back to bed. Get lost."

Luna felt a muscle twitch - if Hoshikawa thought being woken early in the morning was excuse to be so rude, he had another thing com- no. No, she mustn't sink to his level. She had other things to worry about at the moment.

Still, for someone who had not quite woken up, Hoshikawa Subaru was doing a remarkable job of getting under her skin. On top of that, he had enough apprehension to him that she'd learned long ago she couldn't simply flaunt her credentials, political or athletic, and gain his affections. Hoshikawa's deference was a long, long way off. If at all possible.

"Look, Hoshikawa-san," she said very slowly, forcing herself to remain calm. "I understand we haven't quite gotten along spectacularly in the past few weeks, but I came all the way down here because I wanted to talk to you."

"Shame, that," grunted Subaru, stalking over to the kitchen counter. It wasn't like she'd let him go to bed.

Luna, who clearly had no such problems with something like a lack of slumber, followed him. Maybe she was a vampire... or something. What kind of mythological creatures went without sleep, again? Zombies? Moon rabbits?

Whatever she was, she was here. And making herself his problem. Again. It hadn't even been two whole hours, for crying out loud!

Dammit, why couldn't people just leave him alone most of the time and and just make themselves useful when he felt like using them?

There was a clunk right beside his head loud enough to startle him out of his moment-of-not-exactly-empathy. Subaru whipped his head up to find out what was going on to find out what exactly she had dropped so precariously close to his noggin - and then he realized with a start he was looking at the same cube Luna'd made him tote around yesterday, when Ushijima had dropped it. He fixed the gold-haired joshikousei with a glare, an annoyed question about her desire to smash his head in already forming... only to find she was conspicuously out of costume. "No uniform?" Subaru asked before he could catch himself.

Luckily, Luna decided to file the not-exactly-cheerful tone of the sentence in the same cabinet as an early morning I-need-coffee bit. "School's been closed indefinitely," she explained offhandedly. "It's getting too expensive to run the air conditioning, and without it, the school can't reasonably obligate students to remain, as frankly it would be akin to stuffing upwards of hundreds of children into boxes for hours on end. Like most of the dances, really," she added as an afterthought, a small smirk playing across her lips.

Subaru had only been vaguely paying attention - just enough to add a disinterested "Hmm" here and there. He was listening, honestly, he was - it was just that he was finding a great deal of preoccupation with certain other aspects of the conversation. Mainly the woman who was attempting to speak with him.

The first thing he'd noticed was that Luna hadn't set her hair up in her trademark supercurls - instead she'd taken her cascade of thick, golden hair and looped it into a loose but manageable ponytail knot that still managed to spill down below her waist. Another was that she had developed something of a tan over the past few weeks, and her complexion was clear and smooth. He noted that was taller than her by two or three inches, though it probably wouldn't amount to much given his penchant for slouching and her junoesque posture.

In lieu of her uniform, Luna had instead opted for something Subaru had seen increasingly around town, mostly on the more chic-savvy of the girls - a sleeveless, tunic-like dress that had been fashioned out of what looked like high-quality cotton. On top of that, the short length of the skirt, the cut of the neckline, and the rather tight belt of fabric around the middle all gave Subaru a rather remarkable opportunity to study his - the, THE - class representative's figure. He found himself torn on whether Luna's well-toned thighs and hips deserved more attention than the gentle swell of her breasts. The interplay between the white fabric and her bronze skin wasn't helping. Nor was the fact that the outfit reminded him rather strongly of the slave girls from video clips on classical Ameroupan Grome.

Subaru caught the look on her face just in time to avoid wishing the clouds might provide some rain later today.

"Well, I can't fault you for being inattentive, I imagine," Luna sighed, rolling her eyes. "Still, if you must stare, could you be at least a _smidgeon_ more discreet, Hoshikawa-san?"

Subaru coughed awkwardly and muttered an apology. Luna rolled her eyes again, and reminded herself that she was here for a reason. Of course, that was the hard part. "Ah, Hoshikawa-san, I, er, I..."

Subaru gazed curiously at her, raising an eyebrow as he noticed her cheeks turning red. "You okay?"

"I- I'm fine!" Luna snapped. "I just, I just... I just have a small headache, is all." Smooth, woman. Way to make even the truth sound dubious. And, why, exactly, was she feeling so hot under the collar? "Hey! Wh- Where are you going?" she demanded, startled at her reaction to Hoshikawa rising from his seat, but too proud to retreat even the slightest. Of course, for all his apparent acedia, Hoshikawa was in good enough shape to pull enough weight when he wanted to, as Luna found out when he managed to guide her unobliging self onto the recently vacated barstool without actually having to strongarm her.

"Sit," he ordered. "I'll go get you some water."

Luna sat, stunned at how easily Subaru had moved her, and not a little disturbed at how little resistance she'd managed to muster, even while every fiber of her being protested having to take orders. And from a lazy little nobody like Hoshikawa Subaru, at that!

Subaru was more than a little surprised himself, to be honest. And, then again, he wasn't in the slightest. He found himself remembering with a small pang of conscience that he'd ended their last conversation on a pretty sour note. As just Hoshikawa Subaru, he couldn't properly apologize for it yet, but he still ought to make some ammends.

He pulled the refrigerator door open and made a noise of surprise. "Forgot we had this," he noted in mild surprise. "Here you go. Okay?"

Luna nodded, finally rid of the flush in her cheeks. "Lemonade is fine, thank you."

Subaru sighed - well, he might as well get it over with. As if he had no idea why she was here. "So, what's up?"

"Hmm?" Luna cast a curious glance at him, only for Subaru's eyes to narrow slightly.

"Don't play coy with me," Subaru said quietly. "Every time we speak I generally end up being on the receiving end of a request or order. For you to come all the way out here without your posse makes it more suspicious, not less. So, let's have it."

Subaru was actually feeling rather proud of himself for not messing around, even if Luna seemed to take her sweet time coming to a conclusion. She gazed at her reflection in the glass for a moment before lifting the ice-cold glass and passing it across her forehead. Her eyes closed for a moment and her lips parted to savor the glass' refreshing coolness. Perhaps from the heat, she took slightly less care than she should have; Subaru - damned hormones - found himself studying a drop that had spilled over the rim onto her chin, where it hung for a moment, then precipitately fell into the depths of Luna's cleavage, leaving a slim, liquid trail across one of her breasts.

"Discretion is the better part of valor, Hoshikawa-kun," Luna pointed out. "You might want to look into learning how to be a tad more stealthy."

Subaru coughed awkwardly. "Sorry. Couldn't help it."

"Hoshikawa-san, don't start with me," Luna chirped, glancing coyly at Subaru. "As you're neither an idiot nor a minion, I think we can both safely assume you have a reasonable grasp of self-control."

The fact that Luna wasn't taking a swipe at his eyeballs seemed to suggest that Subaru ought to make a note that she seemed to be more open when she was on the receiving end of certain kinds of attention. Honestly, he wasn't all that far off - for all the respect Luna commanded, she also managed to inspire enough fear that the boys who she might take a fancy to (not that Hoshikawa Subaru was anything of the sort) tended to find her presence and attentions awkward at best and dire at worst. The several times such issues had come up tended to leave Luna in a bitter mood; she'd apparently made the mistake of believing men had spines.

"You certainly like those backhanded compliments, don't you?" Subaru asked. "So, if you don't mind, why are you here, again?"

Of course, the flipside of that was that, while Hoshikawa didn't fear her, he didn't respect Luna much, either. She was going to have to work on that.

"Well, as it so happens, I - uh..." No, not again! Luna willed herself to calm down - she needed Hoshikawa's help, she came out here to ask for it, it was only a few words and a question mark. "Umm, do you remember our conversation yesterday?" Okay, so it was a few different words than that.

"The one where you slapped me?"

Luna bit down on the retort she wanted to spike him with. "Well, er... Gonta's missing."

Subaru's eyes widened, keeping in form with being shocked. "What happened?"

"Well, I- I was walking around earlier, trying to clear my head..." Another dodge on why she'd been out so late last night? "I ended up seeing some flames near Ushijima's home and by the time I got there, there were dozens of police and an ambulance." An ambulance? But Subaru remembered making sure no one would've gotten hurt last n- oh, God, no. "U-Ushijima-san, Gonta's mother, was being carried on a stretcher. His mother was found all alone in her room - I don't think she'd left in ages. The sheets were filthy, the room was a mess, she'd been suffering from major malnourishment... She was having some kind of nightmare, except she was awake. Something about lizards."

War Rock forced himself to remain silent - and he saw Subaru doing much the same. In the time he'd known Subaru, he'd discovered that Daigo's son was far more guarded with his self-expression than the humans War Rock had known, even Daigo himself. Still, the reminder of the woman had apparently not gone very well with the boy - War Rock himself was upset about the fluke of their memories, but Subaru looked almost ill.

"I- Is she okay?" Subaru ventured.

"I don't know," Luna responded quietly. She could remember the horrid churning of her stomach from when she had found Ushijima's house surrounded by that blockade, and how horrid Ushijima Momoko looked when they'd wheeled her out on a stretcher. "I just... don't know."

"And Ushijima wasn't there?" Subaru ventured.

Luna shrugged helplessly. "He was nowhere to be found. I- I just... Could you help me find... no, that won't help, I just- I don't know what to do."

Subaru raised an eyebrow. In the midst of her stutterings Luna seemed to have realized that a search party wouldn't be useful for this particular problem. The issue wasn't that Ushijima was missing so much as it was Taurus Fire existed - as Taurus Fire, Ushijima and Taurus could have hidden anywhere on the planet, plotting their next move. Luna had to realize at least that much after last night, when she'd seen this unfold firsthand.

Subaru sighed, and set his glass on the counter, getting up and moving over to the window. It was still bleak, and indeed, looked as though it might rain later that day - which, combined with the heat, would probably generate the atmospheric quality of a swamp.

"Hoshikawa-san?"

Subaru looked over his shoulder at Luna, who was looking at him with something almost approaching expectance. "Yes?"

"I... I need help. I don't know what to do about any of this, and you're the only one who knows anything about the situation in town, so..."

"Situation?" Subaru repeated, feigning curiosity. "What, the weird monster thing?"

Luna bit her lip and nodded. No where to go but forward. "I- I haven't been entirely honest with you, Hoshikawa-san. I did see Gonta-kun last night, a few hours ago, really. He- He transformed into one of... them."

Subaru wasn't sure which was more surreal, the premise of the absurdity that had inflicted itself on his life, or the fact that he was now calmly talking with a girl about a mutual acquaintance who had been possessed by an alien, and on top of that trying to keep his own involvement in the whole freakshow hidden from the public eye.

"I'm sorry," Subaru muttered. "I wish I could help."

Luna looked up at him suddenly. "But you've dealt with these things before, haven't you? You-"

"Dealt with them?" Subaru repeated rather loudly, feeling his heart skip a beat. "Yeah, sure, I dealt with them. I ran away! What, you want me to fight these things?"

Luna stared at him inscrutibly for a moment. "Of course," she said at length, her voice cooler than he'd expected, and all the more biting for it. "My mistake. I don't know what I thought you could do in this situation. I guess panic obscured my judgment. Of course, you're not the person I'm looking for. Too miserable to be a help to anyone." She abruptly stood and moved to the door, tucking the strange cube underneath her arm without the slightest fuss. "I apologize for intruding on your home, Hoshikawa-san. I have business to attend to."

"Business?" Subaru repeated, not entirely certain why he was speaking up again, but pretty sure that it had something to do with being called 'miserable'. "What business?"

"I need to find Ushijima Gonta," Luna replied calmly. "And I have a certain suspicion that I know where I'll find him. Good day to you."

"Hey!" Damnit, what was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just leave this alone? "Wait!"

Luna waited at the door, which she'd pulled open, but once he'd gotten there, he managed to look at the cold gaze she was aiming at him, and realized he had very little to actually say. "I, uh... J- Just don't do anything stupid." Yeah, like he was any good at that himself.

Luna cocked an eyebrow at him. "I'll keep that in mind, Hoshikawa-san. And the same to you."

And then she'd left, Subaru reduced to watching her stalk away from his house from the window when she shut the door in his face.

"_I_ could have handled that better," War Rock noted, floating over to Subaru. "You don't like mornings much, do you?"

Subaru made a grunting noise and trudged angrily into the kitchen - he could tell War Rock was still with him more by the increase in temperature that followed him than by noise or sight.

"Should I point out now that she seems to be suspicious of you, or have you already figured that out on your own?"

"Shut up," Subaru groaned, returning to the counter and wilting across it. And him panicking like that probably hadn't helped.

He massaged his temples briefly and glanced at the unfinished glass of lemonade Luna had left behind. He found himself imagining a scene in which he had called it half-empty and she - just to be contrary - insisted he see it as half-full. And then he sighed, because now he was officially daydreaming about bickering with Shirogane Luna.

He needed to meet more women. Less loud and rigid ones.

On the other hand, he'd successfully averted her raising any questions about his own activities, if only by apparently shooting his standing with her in the foot.

"I hate myself," Subaru groaned.

"Luna seems to be of accord with that opinion," War Rock contributed, sounding amused. Honestly, after several weeks spent tagging along with Hoshikawa Subaru, who was a great deal less intriging than his father, War Rock found himself wishing someone would oust them as RockMan. It would certainly be more interesting than the boy's strategy of Do as Little as Possible to Get By.

"So," he spoke up. "We need a plan."

"No we don't," Subaru pointed out. "We know where he's going to strike, we just have to stake it out until then."

"So you do plan on taking action?"

"I plan on killing Taurus Fire," Subaru corrected. "After that, we're problem free, right?"

"Supposedly," War Rock agreed. "On the other hand, we'll still need to deal with the beacons."

"That's your job," Subaru pointed out. "You're the only one who knows anything about them."

There was a pause, and then, "How generous of you."

Subaru shrugged. "If I touch them, we're both dead, right? It's your job."

War Rock made a grunt of annoyance, but offered no counter-argument. Given the time, he could feasibly puzzle them out and release their energies, but - and he didn't tell Subaru this - it wouldn't be quite as simple as the boy considered. As War Rock had never told him any different, it was entirely reasonable for Subaru to assume that it would be similar to solving the same puzzle several times.

Unfortunately, this was about as far from the truth as possible, though War Rock was still stupefied by it. Why was Taurus Fire - the brashest and least subtle glory-hound in all of Cepheus' employ - composing a system of beacons to summon each and every member of the High King's staff of war?

War Rock wished he had remembered to interrogate Taurus the night before. Of course, finding time to do so had not been, perhaps, the greatest of his priorities.

* * *

Taurus Fire crashed down easily upon the asphault, within only a few feet of RockMan's prone form. His massive body, over ten feet of armor and flames moved with an ease Subaru's pain would only let him envy. From where he'd landed, he didn't have to walk over, or even to take so much as one step - reaching out one massive arm, Taurus Fire plucked RockMan off of the ground, dangling him by the head held between his first two fingers and thumb.

"Your contention ends tonight, by my hand," Taurus growled, his voice the rumble of a furnace, his body heaving with fury. "I will kill you here and now, and this nightmare will all be over!"

"Are you sure you want to do that?" asked War Rock with startling nonchalance. Subaru had to admire his ability to remain calm, but, then again, this wasn't the first time someone had come close to killing Subaru and had forgotten about War Rock. "There's something about your Denpa-Henkan that you obviously don't understand. Killing us would only deny you the answer."

Taurus Fire snarled, a spurt of fire shooting from his nozzle dangerously close to Subaru's head. "Fine. Tell me, and I might let you live but for a moment longer. When this issue has been cared for... then shall your reckoning have come. So, tell me, War Rock... or, no, RockMan," he said after a moment, deathly calm, turning his attention to Subaru. "Will your answer buy you time to escape my wrath?"

"Feedback, probably," Subaru groaned, less than comfortable in Taurus Fire's hand. "Gonta's ideas have apparently been affecting how you think, too."

"Impossible. There is no interface between us," grunted Taurus, though the fact that he did not crush Subaru's head suggested he was still listening.

"Dude, you're inhabiting his body," Subaru was running too much out of both patience and breath to go for gentle, here. "You've been in direct contact with his brain the whole freaking time. Maybe you two weren't aware of it, since Ushijima was conking himself out everytime you wanted to tango, but between Gonta's strain trying to keep you down and your strain trying to keep him going, I'm willing to bet there was a little bleed through.

"Gonta went a little nuts the other day while you were recharging," Subaru pointed out, the image of the boy howling and whaling on a tree passing through his mind. "I'll bet you were wondering how his hands got so wrecked. How do you know he isn't affecting you likewise? Perhaps he doesn't think he's turning into a giant flaming minotaur - but he certainly seems to have been sitting on the question of whether something was wrong with him for quite a while - those nightmares of his have been working against you."

Taurus bellowed again and flames burst from the ports on his chest, back, and from the jets on his elbows - he pitched Subaru hard into the ground in his rage. In his pain, Subaru was only barely aware of the sound of War Rock speaking - he managed to pull himself together fast enough to jump to his feet as Taurus' flames simmered.

"Perhaps you are correct, RockMan. Your words do not please me, though they certainly do not offend reason. But now that I understand this issue for what it is, I can more readily solve it. And I shall be able to do such without an annoying insect pestering me."

Taurus Fire loomed suddenly, and Subaru suddenly wondered how effective Gonta's attempt at binding Taurus actually was. He spread his arms wide, and suddenly Subaru remembered when they first met and how massive Taurus Fire really was. "Hey, now, I thought you said I could have some time."

"You _have_ had it. You chose not to run when I was talking," Taurus said, his voice descending into a low, quiet grumble, just loud enough for Subaru to hear. "And now I will kill you. I am perhaps not at my greatest strength, though you are hardly a challenge to me, Hoshikawa Subaru, son of Daigo. Do not be surprised," he laughed as Subaru gaped in shock. "It is not exactly hard to come to that realization. Your father certainly spoke as much as you do."

"Hey, the past tense isn't cool." Fantastic. Subaru _loved_ street-fighting. "War Rock?"

"Ready."

"Do I look concerned with being _cool_?" Taurus retorted, and it took Subaru a moment to realize what he was getting at.

"Good grief, I wasn't talking about the temperature, you moron." Apparently Taurus and Gonta hadn't had much in the way of lively conversation. "Hey, Ushijima! Wake up in there! I need you to translate for me!"

Taurus Fire bellowed, unending streams of fire surging from every port on his body. "Wretched creature, burn where you stand! FIRE BREATH!"

Blistering flames streaked forward, but Subaru had been here before. "C'mon, Ox Man!" he called, shooting away from the flames and behind Taurus Fire. "You've got to keep up with me!"

Taurus whipped around and cast his fist at Subaru. There was a crash, and Taurus was struggling to free his arm of where he'd driven it into the asphault. Subaru allowed himself the briefest of respites to sigh.

"Wave Battle, Ride On!" said Subaru, and six Battle Cards shimmered into view.

Taurus Fire ripped his arm free and, with more speed and agility than Subaru could ever have imagined in a creature his size, he surged toward his target. In less than a second, Taurus Fire was upon them, mighty fist raised skyward - with a roar he brought it down like a titanic maul.

"ANGER PUNCH!"

Subaru screamed in pain as the fist crushed him mercilessly into the street, the sheer might of the blow ripping through his body and into the asphault - rough, jagged fissures radiated from where the force had escaped Subaru, taking the wild paths of least resistance. Taurus Fire had smashed open a crater in the street, with RockMan as the bull's-eye.

"RockMan!" War Rock was roaring. "Get up! GET UP!"

"Yes, RockMan," grumbled Taurus, picking him up by the head again. "Rise, so that I may have some sport."

"RockMan!" War Rock bellowed again.

Subaru didn't answer - his head was throbbing in agony, and the only reason he knew he still had a functioning body was that its parts were all in pain.

Taurus bellowed with laughter, flinging RockMan into the air and catching him like a softball just below his shoulders - the agonizing pressure immediately switched targets from Subaru's head to his chest. "This is it?" the general demanded harshly. "This is your best bet? Your last stand for me to see?"

"I'm... not... standing," Subaru mumbled, contrary to the end. "And you... can't... see!" he finished in a louder voice, aiming War Rock's head at the one section of Taurus Fire's body not covered in armor. "Tail Burner!"

Blistering, MeraMander-won flames streamed from the red and green jet Subaru had summoned, engulfing Taurus Fire's head in a vicious, surging flamethrower. Taurus howled in pain, hurling Subaru away as he clutched at a helmet he could not remove to grab at eyes he could not reach.

Subaru landed roughly, but gratefully. "Recovery 30!"

The second-level healing program did its work, and Subaru sprang away. With a roar, Taurus ripped his head down, seething at Subaru - his eyes streamed tears that would only hiss and steam when they touched sizzling armor. "Filth!" he howled. "Scum!"

Subaru sucked in a breath, glancing at the nearby houses - he could see little pairs of eyes looking fearfully down on the battle. Someone had probably already called the police. Hopefully. "Sorry about that, War Rock. He caught me by surprise."

"He more than caught you. You were the nail and he was the hammer."

"Uh, excuse me?"

"Your mother makes for quite the entertaining running commentator when she watches the television and consumes alcohol."

"...I don't want to know. I REALLY don't wanna know."

"What? Is professional wrestling bad?"

Taurus scrubbed at his eyes a final time and then roared, swinging his arms wide and lowering his head. Flames exploded from his back and elbows - Subaru saw Taurus Fire pawing at the ground with ungulate legs. There was a roar like a jet engine, and then the behemoth was upon them. "Ox Tackle!"

This time, Subaru was ready.

He lunged forward, at Taurus' oncoming, stampeding legs, casting his untransformed hand at the ground and feeling - willing - the surge of power throughout. It gathered in his trembling hand, and then he pushed it out. "Ground Wave!"

There was a POW, and the area of the street directly before his hand smashed open into another crater - a small, but very real wave of power ripped forward through the asphault, leaving a jagged crack behind it. And then it smashed into Taurus Fire's right foot as it was descending, tearing into his limb. His balance off, Taurus stumbled, and then his flaming jets carried him one bound too far and he flew helplessly over RockMan's downed form, crashing into the street beyond; his Ox Horns slicing into and catching on the foundation beneath, causing him to tumble heavily down the road, his horns carving large strips out of the street.

"Give it up, Taurus," said Subaru, righting himself. "You're not wanted here."

Lying there in the street, Taurus Fire's great bulk heaved as he sucked in breath - was he fueling his internal system with oxygen? Subaru tensed, feeling rather ready for whatever Taurus was planning. He quickly summoned a New Draw, and prepared himself for Taurus' bellows and threats.

Of course, that left him completely put off when the monster began to laugh instead.

"Puny creature," he said, getting easily, almost languidly, to his feet. "You should have fled when you had the chance."

Subaru was quick to pull himself back together - he fell into a ready stance and prepped his next Battle Card. "What are you getting at?"

Taurus was apparently enjoying quite the private joke, considering his chuckle was causing him to actually heave with mirth. "Up until now, I have only been able to fight you under my own power. But now the odds are in my favor, you'll discover."

Odds? But it was just him and Taurus Fire wasn't it?

And then realization hit him harder than a combined punch from both Taurus and the Jammer. "Gonta's awake?"

"Believe it, jerk," growled Gonta's voice, issuing from Taurus Fire. "It's over for you."

"It took some doing," Taurus explained, dropping his voice to an uncannily quiet whisper. "but I finally woke him - he was quite interested when I told him we were hunting the boy who'd caused him so much trouble."

Subaru gritted his teeth, tensing slightly. "And what happens now?"

"Simple," said Taurus Fire with Gonta's raised voice. "I kick your tiny blue ass, put up the last beacon, and then Iinchou's going to see how useful I really am."

Oh, great. Gonta was awake, alright, if by "awake" he meant he'd fallen out of bed.

"And how will that work, exactly? What will she do with those beacons?"

This actually seemed to work for a moment, causing Taurus Fire - or Gonta within him - to hesitate.

"Simple. We will not only prove how useful you are when simply at her beck and call, we will show her how useful you are when exercising your full power," answered Taurus smoothly. "Come, Gonta, I will show you true might."

He was either delirious or exhausted, because the answer seemed to satisfy Gonta. "So there!"

"Seriously? What, does she want to take over the planet?" Subaru challenged, backing up slightly. "C'mon, man, think!"

"He can't hear you," War Rock spoke darkly. "Taurus is only letting in the noises he wants the boy to hear. All else he blocks."

Taurus Fire planted his massive feet, his arms spreading - Subaru could hear the wail of police sirens in the distance, and, if they were as out of their league as the road's desolation suggested, Subaru would have to move Taurus Fire out and away from the residential district. And from anything that could catch fire.

Well, perhaps they should focus on the residential district part, first.

And if he were going to lure Taurus Fire anywhere, he would need to cut off any other outside influence. He flicked his left arm, the flames from War Rock's skull engulfed it and receded, leaving a second Tail Burner in its place. "C'mon, you big Ox - you want another sting?"

Taurus Fire lunged forward again, furious - and his fury was exactly what Subaru was counting on. It made people predictable. Standing his ground, Subaru aimed the Tail Burner steadily, and then launched the flamethrower. "Mahi Plus!"

Taurus howled furiously, again assaulted by a servant's flame, his momentum carrying him past RockMan to crash again into the street - hissing and sputtering, Taurus struggled to correct himself, only to bellow all the greater when he recognized a familiar paralysis gripping him.

"C'mon, ugly!" Subaru called, leaping to the top of the nearby roof. He looked down at Taurus, whose shivering body refused to yield. "I'm escaping again!" And with that, he hopped off the roof and out of sight.

"Are we... fleeing?" War Rock wondered aloud, only for Subaru to shush him. He held up three fingers, and then ticked them off one by one. As the final finger fell, there was a massive shriek of anger and rage, and the ground rumbled with the sound of a stampede.

"_Now_, we're fleeing," Subaru said, with the kind of grin that spoke of thrill and panic and the imminence of death.

Taurus Fire erupted from around the corner, pouring out so much flame his whole body was enshrouded in heat and light - a furious, raging tide of fire and rage, every footstep stamping another liquified hole in the asphault. His beady eyes, gleaming white lights, found his target and Taurus Fire bellowed again. His body was slung so low to the ground his massive, armored arms were serving as makeshift forelegs, grabbing at the street and hauling Taurus Fire forward as his powerful legs propelled him from behind.

Subaru pivoted on his heel. "War Rock, fly!" And then they were off, blue and red streaks tearing down the street faster than people could see, leaving a trail of smashed earth and steaming asphault in their wake.

"I thought you had a plan!" War Rock cried.

"I do!"

"Sharing is caring!"

"No, it's not!" Subaru shot back, feeling rather than seeing Taurus advancing by sheer propulsive force. Finally, they emerged from the main residential district, Taurus Fire's limbs smashing into the ground with a sound of galloping thunderclaps. He glanced forward to check where they were - they were just finishing crossing the western bridge over the river that ran through the center of the town.

"Now! Air Spread - Plus Twenty!"

War Rock called the launcher, firing a round of explosives at the ground directly behind them, each now three times as powerful. Three tightly-packed BOOMs told him he'd hit his mark.

The explosion had not been intended to meet Taurus head on, instead catching him at an angle and thus bypassing the sheer forward force of Taurus Fire's momentum. With a cry, Taurus Fire was launched into the air, stunned so utterly his flames immediately dissipated as he crashed into the ground again. His initial attempt to return to his feet were abruptly halted when Subaru nailed him with a Plasma Gun, leaving him to crash to the ground.

"That's how many times, tonight?" Subaru asked, exhaustion sapping emotion from his voice and leaving it cold. "I told you before, Taurus - now, leave this planet and take your miserable beasts and soldiers with you. We've got enough problems around here without you stirring the pot."

"N-No," Taurus Fire protested weakly. "No, I'm not... we're not finished with you, yet."

Subaru loaded another Battle Card, a Long Sword. He approached the frozen monster, holding the tip at its throat. "Yes. You are."

"Y-You're going to kill me?" Taurus Fire whimpered - Subaru hesitated, unsure of whether he'd heard Gonta's voice.

"Subaru, end it," War Rock urged him, his voice low. "This is no different from a Jamming - though I estimate it will leave Taurus assuredly dead. I doubt anyone here will miss him."

Subaru could hear sirens in the distance, approaching. Finally, peace was at hand - with Taurus gone, no one would be able to summon the FM-ian army. War Rock could puzzle out the beacons at his leisure and release them, freeing Kodama from this wretched heat. Earth would pass by, unnoticed. The shining greatsword extended from his arm, unshaken by the stress or weakness of normal human flesh.

"Goodbye, Taurus," Subaru said quietly, raising his weapon.

"NO!"

Startled, Subaru whipped his head around. "Huh? OOMPH!"

"Don't you dare!" Luna screamed at him, striking at every inch of his face she could reach. "Don't you dare kill him!"

Where the Hell had she come from? Subaru cancelled the Long Sword so he could better remove her hands from around his throat, managing to pry one of her hands off when War Rock bit down firmly enough to secure the other without hurting it. "How'd you get here?" demanded Subaru.

"Like I couldn't see the massive, moving fire?"

Subaru groaned, rolling his eyes. Fantastic. Just what he needed. And then he saw a red blur.

"RockMan!" roared War Rock.

"Look out!" Subaru shouted, yanking Luna away from Taurus Fire.

"Anger Punch!"

WHAM. Subaru and Luna went flying through the air, the girl caught up as safely as RockMan's arms could allow as they crashed to the ground and went tumbling along the asphault.

"FOOLS!" Taurus bellowed, on his feet and looking not even slightly worse for the wear. Subaru quickly glanced at his left arm, which had taken the brunt of both Taurus Fire's comeback and the landing. He winced, seeing little, pixellated trails of light float away from what would be bone-crushing to a normal human - the stinging in his right arm and legs told him he would need to invest in better Recovery options.

"Are you okay?" he asked quickly.

"I- I'm fine," Luna mumbled, dizzily. Her face was scratched, and it looked like her arm was bleeding - only a shallow cut, nothing too serious. What drew Subaru's attention were the small specks of water he could see in the corners of her eyes.

"Stay here," Subaru ordered in the most authoritative voice he could muster. Righting himself, he turned to face Taurus Fire, who was flexing his arms and stamping his feet. "Taurus, you haven't won." He flicked his arm, summoning another draw of cards and selecting a pair. "I can keep this up all night."

"As can I," Taurus answered, small, ready blazes issuing from the ports on his chest. "With Gonta at my side, nothing can stop me!"

Subaru readied himself. If Taurus was that desperate for a fight, things would really go sour. "Gonta! C'mon, pull yourself together! You know better than this!"

"Shut up!" Gonta's voice raged. "Don't you dare tell me what to do!"

"So you're just going to take over the world, huh?" Subaru challenged him. "Seriously, think! What the hell do you want to get out of all this?"

"RockMan, dodge!"

Subaru cursed - he'd let down his guard. With a grunt of pain, he was hoisted aloft by Taurus Fire's gargantuan arm, which had shot out and snatched him before he'd even seen the jet launching it.

Taurus bellowed aloud with laughter, crushing RockMan in his fist and smashing him down into the asphault. Subaru grunted in pain, and gagged as Taurus smashed him downward again. "Let's see how you like it! Fire Breath!"

The stream of fire exploded from Taurus Fire's mechanical muzzle. War Rock cried something unheard over the screaming. Laughing, Taurus Fire ceased spraying him with flames and pitched him hard into the ground, which he followed up by lifting a hoof and stomping it down onto the Shooting Star pendant embedded in the center of RockMan's chest - he drove it down with all the force he could muster. He smashed his fists into RockMan's form twice more before halting.

Luna gasped, the color drained from her face. RockMan was lying at Taurus Fire's feet, limp - his mouth was hanging open and a small stream of blood was leaking from the corner. All along his body, great holes had been ripped in what Luna had assumed was his uniform - only for her to find instead of muscle and bone, strange, blurred colors were racing back and forth where Luna could see underneath his surface - little trails of bizarre light were leaking from these ruptures, strange rings of it swirling around where the flesh had been wholly torn off. War Rock's head had fallen still, his fierce red eyes blank; the flames flickering out of the back had died to mere embers.

"Useless!" Taurus roared. "Completely useless! But now, RockMan, great thorn in my side that you are, I will end you here and now - and nothing shall impede me again!"

"How much do you want to bet?"

"Anger P-" Taurus froze, his fist stuck in the air as if it had caught on some invisible line. "What? What is this?"

Subaru murmured, his head throbbing - slowly, awareness returned to him. Most of it pain.

"Ushijima Gonta!" Luna exclaimed, marching over - actually marching - and coming to a militaristic halt directly between the massive Taurus Fire and RockMan, tiny by comparison. "Shame on you!"

Taurus Fire staggered back as if struck by something heavy - it was ludicrous! He was to lead armies, to conquer worlds, who did this tiny, insignificant- _how_ could she possibly...?

Subaru gaped at her, or he would have, if not for the fact that his head was in a very ungainly position relative to lower half and any attempts to look upward, much as his teenage hormones would enjoy themselves, might prompt Luna to stomp on his nose to try and stem the fresh bloodflow, so he opted to ponder the ridiculousness of it all while staring off to the side.

"Gonta! Answer me!" Luna demanded, her voice stunningly imperious for a teenage girl in no more than a bathrobe. "I know you're in there!"

"I-Impossible," War Rock could only mumble. "How...?"

Subaru grunted, dragging his limp hand over to where War Rock's was lying. "New Draw," he hissed in pain - please, oh, God, please let there be a... YES. He flopped his limp, useless-from-the-elbow-down hand over to where the cards shimmered in the air. Work, he demanded of his arm. WORK, DAMMIT. His anger turned quickly into desperate pleading as his flopped hand missed the card he was going for a second time.

"Ushijima Gonta! ANSWER ME!"

Taurus Fire cringed - actually visibly cringed - at the sheer _command_ in Luna's voice. "I-Iinchou...? Wh-What's going... NERAGGH. NO. NO, I WILL NOT BOW AT THE FOOT OF SOME FALSE QU- QUEEEEEIIIin- Iinchou...?" Taurus Fire reared back, clutching at his helmet. "S-Something's wrooooaaaAAAAGHH! SILENCE! SLEEP UNTIL I WAKE YOU!"

"GONTA!" Luna ordered. "Gonta-kun, come on! I'm talking to you!"

Subaru lunged a third time, forcing all his willpower into reconnecting to that hand. Massive, searing pain ripped through him at once - but he had his fingers back. He shot his hand out a third time - YES.

Taurus Fire's head raised, and they heard him bellow at the sky, shooting a massive stream of flames into the starry sky. "I am Taurus!" he roared. "And I shall not be conquered!"

He brought his head down with a stomp of his foot, and Subaru knew what would happen when he saw the first lick of flame spurt from his chest. As Taurus brought his head down, Subaru focused on one thing and one thing only - the Fire Nozzle. There was a flash of warm, blue light, and suddenly he was between Luna and Taurus, the girl tucked protectively in his left arm, and his free hand grasping the end of Taurus' snout, the beginnings of a Fire Breath leaking through the gaps. "Bug off, Freak."

And then he launched three Ground Waves directly through Taurus Fire's head, all at once.

POW.

Taurus Fire was blasted off of his feet and launched through the air, sailing backwards over the bridge across the river, gracelessly spilling onto the ground and tumbling along until he collided with a bright red, old-school mailbox off to the side of the road on the corner near. He collapsed to the ground, though Subaru kept his stare on him. The monstrous half-alien shuddered, hoisting himself up onto one arm - the Visualizer honed in on the wreckage of material and tubing that had been Taurus Fire's snout - and then the beast collapsed woodenly.

Subaru let out a sigh.

"Y-You're okay?" Luna wondered, breathless.

Subaru nodded. His lack of rejoinder led the two of them to reflect on the severity of the moment.

"Wh- What about him?" murmured Luna, biting her lip and indicating Taurus Fire's limp form.

"Good question." Subaru paused to summon another draw - and noted he was low on offensive Battle Cards. He selected a Cannon, deciding to hold his other cards in reserve, and stepped closer.

"Taurus!"

Luna stiffened, her eyes widening fearfully - Subaru immediately dodged back over to her, taking hold of her again in case they needed to retreat. He summoned the Cannon and held it ready.

A dark shape had appeared, materializing from whatever shadow it had been hiding in. The Jammer did not acknowledge either RockMan or Luna until it had managed to hoist Taurus up by tossing his arm over its own shoulder. Weakly, Taurus rumbled, looking straight at Luna. "See, child - such is true loyalty. A servant who remains loyal when its master is in need. Accept this as teaching, that you might inspire loyalty not out of desperation for a cold, distant light, but as for a burning, intimate fire. That way you might not drive your subordinates into the arms of those who would destroy you."

Subaru heard Luna gasp, felt her freeze. "What... what are you saying? This... this is my fault?"

Taurus snorted, a bizarre, angled spurt of flame shooting out from a mashed tube and off to the side. The Jammer, still silent, tensed... and then they disappeared, just... gone.

"Vanished," War Rock noted. "Perhaps there is a large wave hole nearby. Their echo is gone," he reaffirmed. "We may relax."

Subaru sighed, letting out a long, slow breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Well, that was exciting," he muttered. "How are- whoa. Hey, what's wrong?"

Luna wasn't moving, staring at the space where Gonta had been. "H- He said it was my fault. My fault..."

Subaru winced, unsure of how to calm her. She'd bitten her lip, and he could see her eyes were watery. "Hey, calm down. It's okay."

"No, it's not!" Luna shot back tearfully, rounding on him. "If- If something happens... and- and Gonta... what if he- he- he dies? You- you were going to kill him!"

Subaru hesitated. "Not him, in particular," he pointed out. "I was going for the cow. I get rid of him, save the kid, everyone's happy. Like with the Jammer from a while ago."

Luna might very well have been petrified, realization dawning across her face. "I- I- Oh, my God..."

"Unfortunately," War Rock spoke up, looking up from Luna's side at Subaru. "Our job is now all the harder.

"With the child awake, Taurus may more effectively conjoin them together, mind and body, which, to keep things simple, will make it all the harder to reduce Taurus Fire into the individuals of Taurus and the boy. He has now had waking moments as Taurus Fire, and we know from _you_," War Rock look pointedly at Subaru, "that _Denpa Henkan_ is quite the rush."

"Not helping," Subaru grunted, seeing the color drain from Luna's face. "Hey, we'll get him back. It'll be fine," he added in what he hoped was a reassuring voice. "He's got some fight in him left. Taurus had to shut him down so he could get away."

Luna brushed the backside of her hand against her face, pawing lightly at the water collecting in the corners of her eyes. "But... but, I..."

"Hey," Subaru said, quietly but firmly; he squeezed her reassuringly. "It'll all work out."

Luna blinked back more tears, shaking her head - Subaru realized with some relief she was trying to regain self-control, rather than argue with him. "I- I apologize. I wasn't thinking and I made everything worse. I just..."

"Saw a friend with a sword at his throat," Subaru supplied, not bothering to hide a chuckle at the absurd situation. "I don't blame you." He paused, something buzzing in the back of his mind. "What are you doing out here, anyway?"

He glanced back to the street, filled with potholes, cracks, and what looked like pools of molten asphalt, trailing towards them from across the bridge over the river and farther north and east.

Luna hesitated. "I wasn't too far away, actually. I-"

Subaru paused, for the first time getting a good look at Luna. He blushed - Luna was wearing nothing but her underwear and a bathrobe. Her hair was down, a mess, actually, and now that he got a better look at her eyes... they were red and far too puffy, no way from tears as recently as the ones she'd just been shedding.

What had she been doing out here, crying?

"Hey, are you okay?"

Luna looked away. "I'm fine. There's nothing wrong." Her voice was clipped, short. But Subaru was far too experienced at evading questions to be so easily put off the scent. Still, her shoulders had grown very stiff - and that probably meant she wasn't going to come clean, least of all with him.

"Eesh, it's late," Subaru noted, summoning a small clock. "Or, well, early. And, with my luck, you probably live across the bridge?" Subaru ventured, taking another glance out at the ruined structure.

The sirens were still wailing in the background, but Subaru figured they were probably still trying to figure out where the tracks led. The road was too messed up for cruisers, or at least not for such a low budget, wheels-only station like the Kodama Police Department. He could see some lights ahead, probably some men with flashlights running along where wheels couldn't proceed. It would still take them a good fifteen minutes of full-out running to get within a natural field of vision, by RockMan's estimate, probably longer due to the dark.

Luna nodded, grateful for a change of topic. She pointed her finger at the mailbox that Taurus Fire had crashed into - no, at the building beyond.

"That's... what?" Subaru said, wracking his brains. "The Northridge Echo Condos? You live there?"

"Westridge," Luna corrected him. "Suite Twenty-Three."

Subaru blinked. "Ah," he said. "I was just planning on dropping you off at the front door."

Luna paused. And then she blushed. "I, ah, I... the door would be fine."

Subaru coughed awkwardly. "Well, uh, I'll get you across the bridge, then?"

For the first time, they both sddenly became aware of the fact that Subaru hadn't let go of her since blasting Taurus into the maibox. "So, uh, give me a second - okay, comfortable?"

"No," War Rock answered, knowing he would just be ignored. The flames leaking from the back of his head had died to a small flare, though Luna probably would've expressed discomfort at an earlier point if they really burned.

Luna blushed. "Just to establish, this is a one-time thing! I'm just _letting_ you carry me, understood? So nothing suspicious on your part, or I'll- EEEK!"

Subaru grinned, hefting Luna's body in his arms suddenly and making her jolt, wrapping her arms around his neck to secure herself. "Hey! I said no funny business!"

Okay, so the next time Luna wanted to extract respect from someone, it would need to be while she was wearing something a tad less intimate than her bathrobe. At least he wasn't too horrible about- "EEEEEEEEEEK! !"

While she'd been thinking, RockMan had walked her to the edge of the river and leapt clean over... without bothering to warn her.

"Sheesh, chill out," Subaru chuckled, landing easily. "You're totally-" WHAM. (Note to self - Shirogane's fists are harder to dodge when your arms are full of her).

"Put me down!" Luna demanded, her face bright red. "Put me down, now!"

"Alright, already," Subaru muttered, feeling his jaw. He crouched down and lowered her to her feet. "There. And just to note - no harm done. See, I know what I'm doing."

"Sure you do," Luna shot back. "You didn't give me any time to prepare - my robe could've caught the wind, and then you'd be sorry!"

"Fine," Subaru grumbled. "Fine, whatever. Owww," he murmured - his jaw was growing sore. "Did you have to hit so hard?"

"Oh, please," Luna muttered, crossing her arms huffily and looking away. "You took it from that minotaur thing."

"Yes, and that hurt a lot," Subaru pointed out. "The next time you see someone fracture their jaw, you go right ahead and tell them to suck it up because they've already had broken ribs that night."

"Fractured?" Luna repeated curiously (Subaru paused, hearing an echo of what sounded like concern). "Really? Here, let me see."

"Whoa! Hey, hold on a second. Ouch!"

"Oh, you big baby, hold still!" Luna grunted, trying to get a better look at the skin not obscured by the helmet.

"Oy, leggo!"

"C'mon, let me see!"

"I said to let go!" Subaru shouted, seizing and yanking her hands away. "It's fine, I don't need you grabbing at it."

Luna blushed. "Well, you said it hurt! I was just trying to help!"

"I don't need help!" Subaru shouted, slightly surprised at the vehemence of his statement. "Not from you.

"W-Well, you're home, now," he muttered, feeling guilty when he saw her stung expression. "So... so, just, good night."

And then he was gone, leaping back across the river and leaving Luna standing in the pre-dawn air, wrapped in her bathrobe. "HEY! Where are you going? Come back, here, I'm not finished with you! I- I- What, I can't say good night, either?" she trailed off with a murmur, wondering why, exactly, she was so upset. "You could've at least let me finish, Jerk," she added sullenly, watching him disappear southward in spite of herself. Quietly, miserably, she shrank back into the shadows of the complex - she had a job to do, and her first stop was Ushijima Gonta's house.

Subaru wasn't listening, having slipped through the window over his bed, reverted, and passed out from exhaustion... only for Luna to get her indirect revenge by denying him his sleep two hours later.

Not that he would get any sleep at all for the next week.

* * *

There were two reasons why Hoshino Ryuta was in a foul mood tonight.

First and foremost, he was in the Driver's Seat. Now, this particular phrase was generally used to denote a sense of empowerment and control in the steering of one's own livelihood, but the poignant irony of the evening was that in spite of Ryuta's literal placement behind the wheel, he was roughly as in control of his life as an ant whom had found its way onto the palm of a particularly inquisitive child.

Secondly, he was experiencing the night life. Now, the night life he'd imagined himself enjoying involved (and which he certainly wasn't enjoying now) involved bright lights, scantily clad women, and perhaps a bit of dancing. Compare that to now, in which he had to shift himself every now and again to keep the butt-end of his spine from throbbing too painfully and take constant sips of coffee in order to keep his eyes from sinking backwards into the pit of his skull.

As it so happened, the closest thing to a scantily clad woman in the truck happened to be Shirogane Luna, who just so happened to be the reason he was here, on top of that. Of course, any untoward attentions on his part would earn him the sensuous, throbbing pleasure of a black eye - one such instance he had just narrowly avoided six days ago. He still remembered that sick, I-just-had-way-too-much-rich-food-and-it's-gotta-go-NOW feeling of fear that one morning when Luna had not only drawn him out of his house with a voice like honeyed sugar, she'd seized him by the throat, pinned him against the wall just outside the door and presented a well-prepared, excellently researched argument towards the end that he should donate his time, effort, and legally-approved Navi Card: ownership to a good cause.

"Your Transers are both on silent, correct?"

Now, normally Ryuta wouldn't have minded this in the slightest - the premise of cruising around in an invincible truck scouring the neighborhood for a nationally famous arsonist that even had the police stumped was certainly entertaining - however, Ryuta found himself realizing that perhaps this wasn't quite so fantastic an idea as it sounded. However, Luna had both the kind of imperious presence and single-minded fanaticism that made any attempt to question her wisdom to seem both very foolish and painful.

Of course, sheer physical exhaustion wasn't exactly doing him any favors, either.

"C'mon, Iinchou, let's-"

"No."

"I didn't even finish my-"

"No."

"Iinchou, I do believe Hoshino-sa-"

"NO."

For the first time in his life, Saishouin Kizamaro felt a certain degree of solidarity with Hoshino Ryuta. Of course, he might've said the same thing if it were a serial killer in Hoshino's place. Frankly, the look of thwarted ferocity currently warping Luna's face would've made even the world's worst psychotic break down and blubber.

Of course, even a psychotic would follow a certain degree of logic, twisted and small as it might be. Ryuta, on the other hand, plunged fearlessly on. Or, rather, brought the car to a complete and sudden stop. "Look, Iinchou, we've seriously got to-"

"No! No, we will not stop!" Luna shouted suddenly. "People are in danger out there!"

Ryuta glanced at the dashboard. It was almost midnight, and the onboard map pinned them somewhere in West Kodama. "Iinchou, we aren't going to find this guy. Look, the Raider's got the _police_ stumped. It's not like we have any leads on him. And besides, what the hell am I doing here? Where's Gonta?"

Kizamaro winced at the expression on Luna's face, quickly stepping in. "Ushijima's missing, Hoshino-kun," he squeaked.

"Wait, what?"

"He's been missing for a week and his mother's in the hospital."

Ryuta was glad he'd stopped the truck; if he hadn't, he might've crashed it for gaping. "Whoa whoa whoa! Hold on! Start from the beginning!"

"That IS the beginning," Luna muttered. "Kizamaro and I spent all week looking for him. We would've used _this_," she gestured at the truck, "but I haven't received my DrivingMan Card, yet."

Ryuta raised an eyebrow. "I know. But still-"

"We're not stop-"

"Dammit, shut up! Let me finish!" It was a testament to his exhaustion and stress that Ryuta had forgone his usual nature in favor of shouting. It was a testament to Luna's that she shut up. "Luna, you aren't helping anyone! I understand where you're coming from, but you have to realize, even with this 'watch committee' you put together, we haven't got a hellbound snowball's chance of doing anything worthwhile! We're not going to find the Raider, we're not going to find Gonta, and we're putting ourselves in the hospital by pretending that we can!"

Luna glared at him for a moment, but faltered and looked down. Kizamaro remained silent, sure that he was now dreaming. Or maybe Luna wasn't quite as invincible under such great stress. "I- I'm sorry. You're right, Hoshino-san. Forgive me for dragging you all around like this, please."

Ryuta was mildly surprised at himself for not rejoicing in the victory, and he heartily suspected it was the sound of utter defeat hollowing out her voice. "N-No problem," he answered. "Hey, DrivingMan, let's go home, hey, Bud?"

In the center of the dashboard was a screen, displaying a humanoid figure that looked like the child of a dragster and a robot. "Sure thing, boss!"

There was a small hum, and Ryuta placed his hands on the wheel. Kizamaro glanced at his Transer and winced at the midnight timestamp. Hopefully his father was still asleep.

Ryuta sighed, glancing out the window... and then noticed that they hadn't gone anywhere. "Yo, Driving... uh..."

"Hi, there," said the figure on the screen with a voice like silk, who was most definitely not DrivingMan. DrivingMan was off to the side, trying to cope with the hole punched through its chest by the lightning blade of the Raimei-zan. "How's everyone doing?"

Luna froze, thinking. This... this _person_ was new to her, most definitely not one of the Jamming monsters she was used to. Jamming had distinct features and statures; this new being was a pitch dark silhouette with only a gleaming smile to see. "Wh-who are you?"

"A friend... well, no," the figure said, chuckling to himself. "Most definitely not."

He withdrew the blade from DrivingMan, watching it collapse to the floor and explode with a gurgle. "Oh, don't worry," he said reassuringly to Ryuta. "All Navi Cards are just instances of the core data; your Bud is just fine, though you'll probably have to reapply for another card. And I'm almost certain that the Drving Man core has sent out an alert by this point... oh, look at me, I'm rambling.

"Well, to business. Miss Shirogane, might I be correct in assuming that, while piloted by Hoshino-san, _you_ are, in fact, the true owner of this vehicle?" Luna's lack of response was taken as an invitation to continue. "Or, well, not a vehicle, specifically. This is a _Matter Wave_, is it not?"

Luna fearfully nodded her head.

"Ah, magnificent. I was just in the market for one. You see, I have an associate who could have a great deal of fun with this. Certain events need to transpire tonight, or, well, everyone will be dead from this heat wave of mine." The figure shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry things got this bad; I'm new at this whole sort of plot-thing. Lots of loose ends to deal with on my end that leave me pressed for time, and when I get them done, I'm really rather tired. SO, back to business."

"Hoshino-kun," hissed Kizamaro, "what are you doing? We need to get out of here!"

"Ah, ah, ah!" The figure sang chidingly. There were several thumps and a small hum - the vehicle's interior was suddenly briefly lit and dimmed just as quickly. "There. No more open-able doors. Now, Saishouin-kun, please sit."

Another brief glow, and Kizamaro found himself struggling against sudden tethers that had once been his seatbelt.

"What do you want?" Luna demanded. "Are you the Raider?"

"Close," the figure acknowledged. "I'm his boss. Of sorts. If he knew he had a boss. Which he doesn't, really, so I guess-" For all the surreal lack of features, the figures face and mouth were certainly elastic enough to supply expressions. "Oh, whoops, there I go, again! Well, lessee, you've all been kind, so I guess I'll let you in on what I'm up to.

"We discussed whether this was a Matter Wave a few moments ago," the figure pointed out. "As I said, I was in the market for my associate; you see, we need one for tonight's heist. Thank you so much, by the way, for providing it, Shirogane-san. I can always count on your far-reaching wealth to get me out of a tight spot, huh?"

Luna refused to yield her expression to anything less than stoic. "What do you want?"

The figure paused, thinking to himself. "I don't think I'll be telling you, specifically." And then he paused again. "Oh, God, I just had a wonderful idea.

"You see me, correct? Now look out the window. Now back to me. Now back out the window. You'll see a figure there. Correct, that's Ushijima. Hold on tight." There was a loud noise as Gonta seized the front of the truck and hoisted it easily into the air. Kizamaro had begun to scream, which wasn't helping Luna's attempts to keep her own beating heart in check. Ryuta, for his part, was convinced he was dreaming. "Look down, there's a flash." Kizamaro, strapped tight against the seat, screamed in agony as the blinding light of Denpa-Henkan filded the street. "Oh, jeez, forgot about you. Now look again. It's a minotaur wearing armor. Guess what? He's the Raider. Now back at me. See this proto-Jamming here next to me? Yeah, he's for Hoshino-kun. Now if you'll all just hold still for a moment..."

Ryuta hesitated. "Wait, _what's_ for me?"

"Our little lightning round is over. I'll be taking the Matter Wave," the figure said with a shrug. "Thanks for playing."

"That doesn't even have any coherent progression," Kizamaro whined.

"Hey, I'm new at this! Cut me some slack!"

Luna screamed as the vague, shadowy mist exploded through the screen.

* * *

The solid barrel of Jammer torso made for a fantastic springboard. Subaru landed easily atop the building, pausing in the dark night to listen to the sounds below. The Inspector was passing out orders, shouting something at Lieutenant Sakurako. He paused, taking a moment to load a few Battle Cards - he could hear the sounds of gunfire below and the thick, rapid-fire CHINK noises told him the hard rubber was ricocheting harmlessly off. He heard Sakurako announcing that the bullets didn't seem to be working, and Heiji answering with a heartfelt "No, Shit!"

There was a crash and a sudden rumble - Subaru nearly lost his footing as a massive thrill rushed through the building's structure. He jumped to the edge, looking down to find the Jammer had smashed its fist into the wall, creating a hole. Curiously, the Jammer made no attempt to retrieve its fist, and, indeed, created a second hole with its free hand. There was silence for a moment, as RockMan and the Heiji's squadron watched the Jammer - and then, with a vision no human could match, Subaru saw tension ripple along the Jammer's arms and leave its legs, allowing it to crouch down.

"He's going to jump," Subaru realized aloud. "He's going to pull himself up and jump, like a slingshot."

"What?" asked War Rock.

"MOVE IT!" Subaru explained, leaping back from the edge as tension returned to the Jamming's legs - with enviable ease, it catapulted itself straight up fifty, sixty feet into the air. "Jamming Vulcan!"

A spray of vulcan fire sliced through the air, ripping into the roof and side of the building as the Jamming rocketed upwards, far beyond Subaru. It cast itself into a spin, its indiscriminate fire ripping through everything beneath it - Heiji shouted in pain, clutching at his arm where the vulcan shot had sliced through it. "Fall back! Fall back!"

"Hey!" Subaru shouted. "Leave them out of this!"

The Jamming straightened itself and landed dramatically on the edge of the roof, rising out of its crouch to tower over Subaru. "Or what?"

"Cannon!" BOOM. "That's what," Subaru added snarkily, hearing the Jammer smash into the ground below after being knocked off of the roof. He approached the edge, surveying the scene below. "Detective! You okay?"

"I've been better," Heiji shouted back - his arm looked bloody beneath the wrappings above his elbow. "What the hell is that thing?"

"A Jammer!" Subaru called back. "And not the friendly, neighborhood variety, either," he added under his breath.

"Since when have these creatures ever been friendly?"

Below, the Jammer rolled smoothly backwards, reverse somersaulting into a crouch and quickly springing backwards into the air like a gymnast. It reached the wall of the second story of the cafe and launched upwards at Subaru without so much as adjusting its speed. "Show off. Moe Ring!"

Subaru took only a moment to aim as War Rock's head was replaced with the launcher - a ring of fire burst into life and shot forward, slicing easily through the Jamming's right arm and knocking him off balance - the Moe Ring's return scored it no victory, as the Jamming took refuge by latching onto the side of the building below Subaru.

"Eesh," Subaru muttered. "Is it me, or is this getting too easy?" And then he paused, looking upwards. When had it gotten so cloudy? He could've sworn the night was clear only ten minutes ago.

"Oh, you wanted a challenge?" said a light, warm voice that made Subaru's insides freeze solid. "Allow me to oblige!"

Subaru screamed in pain - blistering, white hot AGONY coursed along his back as something crashed into him and exploded, blasting him off of the roof. He crashed limply to the ground, his vision blurring from the pain. "RockMan! RockMan, are you okay?"

"Do I look like I feel?" Subaru muttered, slowly managing to prop himself up. "What the hell was that?"

"An assault from the rear," supplied War Rock, helpful as always. "I was unable to perceive our assailant."

"That's alright - ack!" Subaru sprang to the side as the Jammer he'd been dealing with leapt off the building and brought its fist crashing down upon the street, the downward descent only lending more momentum to its massive cudgel of a fist. "I didn't get anything off him, either. Shit, that hurt," Subaru added with a wince, feeling where he'd been struck.

He dodged aside again as the Jammer morphed its arm into a gatling. "Jamming Vulcan!"

"Okay, seriously, enough," Subaru muttered. "Sword!"

The Jammer glanced vaguely at the massive, pixellized gash in its side with the vague, clinical interest of a biologist. And then it gurgled, crumpling to the floor and peeling away from its unhurt human host.

"Is that it?" called Heiji after a moment of silence.

"Not by a long shot," Subaru answered, springing back to the top of the roof, ignoring the detective's shouts from below.

Whatever surprise he'd felt from the fact that his attacker chose to stick around and wait for him Subaru chose to mask. "So, I'm assuming that you got me with that potshot?"

The figure chuckled - even with the Visualizer's enhanced visual capabilities, Subaru couldn't see the figure clearly in the dark... or, the dark thought suddenly occured to him, maybe the newcomer was willingly distorting the filter of the Visualize Visor. "Yup, guilty as charged. You wanna make something of it?"

"Well, you turn around and let me knock you off the roof, I'd say we'd be even." Subaru remained wary in spite of his chosen words; besides the figure was the towering stature of a fourth Jamming.

The stranger burst out laughing, actually doubling over - an effect that was startling enough even without the familiarity of this person's voice tugging at the back of Subaru's mind. "Just like that, huh?" he laughed. "You're funny, kid!"

Subaru didn't answer, waiting for the figure's laughter to peter out. "Oh, come on, where's your sense of humor? It was funny!"

"I think you might have punched it out of me. It might be somewhere in the rubble."

The dark figure grinned - a massive, eerily bright grin that contrasted spookily with his otherwise black body. Subaru glanced at the figure's outline, feeling something churn when he realized his outline seemed to be blending into the night sky beyond him. "Was that you?" he asked, the words coming to him suddenly. "Were you the one who tipped the Satellite Police off?"

The cheshire grin curled almost evilly. "Maybe. Satellite's been looking pretty stupid, lately, what with all the incidents going on. The beaureaucracy's been looking for someone to blame. Those, what did you call them, Jamming - they like to go a little crazy."

"They're easy enough on their own," Subaru noted calmly, his mind racing - okay, so he had a Wide Sword on board, and a pair of Recovery 30s in reserve, plus whatever cards War Rock would draw. "One on one, they're kind of easy, now."

The figure's grin widened impossibly far in the darkness, and Subaru wondered if the figure was screwing with his Visualizer for effect - and then the newcomer threw his head back and laughed. "That's not quite their fault, Hoshikawa-kun," the figure chuckled ominously, causing Subaru to bristle like never before. "It's not that they're easy so much as that you've just gotten too good. You gave Taurus quite the run for his money last week, if I recall."

Subaru paused, the figure's mention of Taurus and the Jamming resonating in his head. "Hey, mind if I ask you a question?" Subaru ventured suddenly.

"Oh, how rude of me. Please, you can call me the Conductor."

"Not my question, but thanks, anyway."

"Oh! Well, then, not at all, but I don't know if I'll answer."

"The Jamming that came to get Taurus," Subaru began slowly, recalling something that had seemed odd to him. "It didn't call him 'Lord' Taurus, like it did before."

The "conductor" chuckled approvingly. "Very good, Hoshikawa-kun. You are correct, the Jamming do not serve Taurus. At least, their loyalty is not to him."

"But aren't they here because of him?" Subaru demanded.

"Yup."

"And what exactly do you have to do with this? Did you come here to screw with me?"

"Specifically? No. That's just a perk. No, I'm here about Taurus."

"You want him to stop him putting up the last beacon?"

The conductor laughed again, this time high and cold. "Oh, no, no, no, Hoshikawa-kun... or, rather, RockMan. No, I very much want him to put up the last beacon."

"I thought you claimed interfering with us wasn't your purpose here," War Rock said suddenly.

"It's not primary, anyway," the figure answered smoothly. "I came here to ensure Taurus put up a usable beacon, which means I have to ensure he gets the chance."

Subaru dropped into a fighting stance. "Well, we seem to have come to an impasse."

The figure laughed again. "Oh, no, I don't plan on fighting you - don't worry. Besides, as fantastic as your skills are, you're nowhere near my skill level. If I wanted to, I could slay the both of you, here and now."

"But you haven't, yet," Subaru pointed out. "Which suggests you have some other purpose for us."

"Well, you'd certainly make my job easier," the figure answered pleasantly. "Oh, look, here he comes, now."

Looking where the figure pointed, Subaru saw a blazing red light, obscured by the dark buildings. Of course, he already knew what it was, though the ground thrumming with his massive, heavy steps certainly helped identify him from a distance away.

Taurus Fire was on the move.

"He's coming from the east," Subaru noted suddenly, glancing at the intended target, "and he'll have to turn south. He won't even see the cafe's roof to respond to it..." And then his eyes widened. "Is that what this is all about?"

The figure laughed loudly again, enjoying what seemed to be quite the good time. "Bingo! Hahaha, I'm psyched you figured it out so quickly. Glad to know I'm not dealing with one of those gung ho idiot hero types. I don't think I could stand that. I had the cops here because I figured they would respond to my information by showing up with some force - with plenty of cruisers to blow up, thus putting on a nice little show for Taurus, so, even if there's no red roof left after all this, the flames will draw him anyway." He shrugged.

"I must give you points for figuring that out about the red, Hoshikawa-kun, it was very clever, if a little unsatisfactory, I admit. The whole red thing was weird, sure, but it sure was convenient to mess Taurus up for us, let me layer some extra music into the beacons, give 'em some extra juice, then send him off to bed. Thanks to Ushijima-kun, whenever that red color hits his brain, he has to pause to figure out how to react, and normally I'd bet he'd be just fine - but that pause opens a little window for me to let myself in.

"You see, you really should have wondered, Hoshikawa-kun, just how Taurus retained enough sense to pull together a beacon when the color red obviously left him in no state to think clearly. Of course, he should be wary of the color by now, but he's never been good at self-control, you probably realize, and on top of that, he has no capacity to protect himself mentally. I simply have to get him to see the color, and, boom, I'm in. Technically, I probably don't even need the red roof... but patterns are fun."

"And you can't put up a Beacon, yourself?" War Rock ventured. The figure shrugged easily in reply.

"Unfortunately, I'm a Source with no power working at being a Manipulator." Subaru paused. A what doing what? "Given the situation, my rightful powers are currently denied me, and I have no way of accessing them at present - which is why Taurus Fire, a Source himself, is so fantastic a tool. My goodness, even these Jamming do better as Sources than I can at the moment. They're following my orders," he added in a conspiratorial whisper, "because I can get them more power sooner than Taurus ever could with them as his lieutenants."

War Rock made a noise of recognition, dark as it was, though Subaru had no idea what the figure was talking about.

"Don't worry, Hoshikawa-kun - it takes a little getting used to, but you'll get it, someday. Or die, maybe, I dunno. My business is with the big fella and getting him up here.

"Unfortunately," the figure added at length, his voice darkening. "It seems my little vanguard was taken care of too easily. I never figured you would've gone for help, Hoshikawa-kun. Goodness, who would you even know who could take on a Jammer?"

"Help?" repeated Subaru blankly. He remembered suddenly the other two occupants of the diner - had this guy not known about them? "I didn't-"

"Don't play games with us," growled the conductor, his cheshire teeth clenching suddenly. "We're not all that fond of liars. There were two other Jamming here. What. Happened. To. Them?"

"But, I'm not-" Subaru shut his mouth when he heard War Rock hiss at him. His mind, on the other hand, was still flying - two plus Subaru's meant three, and the conductor's assistant seemed to be the doctor's fourth.

The figure seethed for a moment, and then, slowly, his grin returned - and Subaru was now officially creeped out by having to go on the smile to judge this guy's temperament. "Ah, sorry, we tend to lose our temper, sometimes. Please forgive our rudeness. Well, anyway, it seems we have to go get Taurus Fire's attention over here. Be a dear and help us out, would you?"

"Seriously, quit switching in and out of the plural. It's creepy," Subaru pointed out. "And the condescension isn't helping."

"Oh, that's okay - we've had years to get used to it. Now, hold still."

More blurry shapes appeared in the Visualizer's readout - though Subaru wasn't nearly so sure whether he should trust it, especially considering that these new blurs seemed to be leaking and billowing out of the stranger's own haze in the center. And then he caught sight of four pairs of very familiar LED eyes. "Now, hold on a second-"

"Oh, don't worry," chuckled the figure. "You won't have to fight all four. Just three will do."

The blurs seperated from the figure's body, taking on more solid forms - the darkness receded into the mere night's shadow, and suddenly they had been joined by three more towering Jamming. "So, what's number four doing here- oh, no. No way." The fourth Jamming moved for the first time since Subaru'd noticed it, revealing a pair of limp, familiar forms.

"Yes way, Hoshikawa-kun," said the figure, dropping the humor from his voice. "This is how it's going to work out - you're going to help me put on my little show, and then let Taurus do his work, or Shirogane-san and Saishouin-kun, here..." He gestured to Luna's and Kizamaro's rigid forms - the fourth Jamming was dangling them by their heads. "Well, let's just say there'll be a stunning correspondence between what happens to them and what happens when you mash potatoes.

"Poop," he added after a moment, actually stroking his chin with his hand. "I think I need to work on my threats. Mashed potatoes are hardly the most intimidating of foods. I wonder, what about watermelon? Pumpkin? Hoshikawa-kun, what do you think- ah, yes, that _is_ a Wide Sword."

"Let them go," Subaru said evenly. "Or I swear I'll kill you."

"I admire your bravery," said the figure, "or perhaps your bravado... but you'll find me harder to vanquish than a mere Jammer. As remarkable as they are, I'm afraid their unions tend to degrade. I think someone will need to work out a system to change them between hosts, like a four quarters plot in farming. It takes a good deal of will and self-control to handle a Jamming virus without negative side effects. Unfortunately, it seems like War Rock and Taurus have been taking up all the good host stock. I'm afraid these ones aren't nearly up to your standard," he admitted with what sounded like rue.

"Even with all those classmates Iinchou was gathering at your suggestion, few of them made for solid stock, and even so, normal viruses aren't all that fantastic at _Denpa-Henkan_, so I figured a few more than normal should suffice, if only to slow you down. Beggars can't be choosers, after all. Though you won't have any help, this time."

"Ooh, I know!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Here, just to let you know there're no hard feelings - after Taurus Fire sets up the final beacon, you can go ahead and do your thing."

"How... generous of you," Subaru noted. "And if I take issue with Taurus putting up the beacon?"

"Well, until I think of a more intimidating food, I'm going to ask you to visualize mashed potatoes." The fourth Jammer, behind the figure and the others, lifted its arms and shook them a little - Luna's and Kizamaro's bodies rocked back and forth slightly in the air. "Poop. I understand the situation is vexing, but I haven't ever really had to worry about effectively intimidating someone before. That's always been his thing."

His? And, wait, what happened to the plural?

"Well, anyway," the figure said and shrugged, "Taurus has gotten close enough, so I don't suppose you could be a pal and call him over, would you?"

"And if I say no?"

The figure sighed. "I really wish you wouldn't make me do this, but..." He lifted a hand, and a crackle of power danced between his fingers. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the little crackle of energy shot from his fingers and past Subaru. There was a loud roar and a sudden blaze of light - Subaru whipped his head around to find the cafe on fire. "Well, he's bound to find it, now.

"Oh, don't worry about him," said the figure. "You have your own problems to worry about. Boys?" The other three Jamming shifted suddenly, now limber and ready. "Now, I want to see a good, clean... Ah, hell. Go nuts."

"I don't suppose you have a plan?" War Rock ventured, startling Subaru.

"Yeah. Stay alive."

* * *

Heiji winced, testing his arm. "Has anybody got a read on that bullet?"

"It's, uh, not a bullet," Sakurako spoke up. He held up the long, needle-thin and dagger-sharp slug, as black as the asphault. "We, uh, don't know what it is. And we won't, apparently."

Heiji whipped his head around, just catching the needle dissolving into light and dust. "Well, shit." He leaned easily against a nearby lamp post, surveying the young kid that had been left behind when the weird smoke-thing disappeared from the monster's fallen form. Well, he seriously doubted they could press charges - he highly doubted that the kid became that monster on purpose.

He glanced up at the rooftops across the street, where Kamen Rider had disappeared. He sighed. "Any luck with that radio?"

"Nothing yet," Sakurako reported, shrugging. "The consoles won't react, either," he added, wincing. "Everything's hung. We're stuck here at the bonfire."

Weird. Heiji paused, thinking back to the cab incident. That first time, only their communications tools had been shut down, and they'd come back when Kamen Rider blew up what he assumed was the first Jammer-thing. Now the whole electrical systems of their cruisers were on the fritz. Maybe it was a function of proximity - the closer they got, the stronger the effect? But the Jammer was dead, now, so it should be back to normal, unless it was completely conked out. Possibilities filled his mind, not least that there were other of those things lurking around. He could've sworn he'd heard an explosion earlier, but he'd figured it was Kamen Rider dealing with the Jammer.

At least nothing else had caught fire.

"Anybody bring marshmallows?" he asked, gazing at the still-flaming two-cruiser wreck. A couple of the men gave weak chuckles, though they all cut off suddenly when the earth rumbled.

Heiji stiffened, listening. There it was again - Heiji checked his holster for his gun, wishing he'd brought something with a little more kick. Shock rubber was great for stunning _normal_ people, but whatever was making the earth thrum like that was probably going to be a lot harder to deal with then those Jammer-things, and those were already invulnerable to the rubber.

"So, anyone up for a fight with the Raider?" he asked, grinning.

Instead of a spoken response, Heiji was answered with what sounded like a strange buzzing noise, almost like the crackle of electricity. And then he saw it - the small, dancing sparks, descending from the rooftops and dancing into the open door of the cafe. He had only seconds to react. "Get back! Get out of there!"

The roar of the sudden fire startled even him - a couple of officers had been too close for comfort, but nothing worse than a first-degree burn. "What the hell was that?"

"It wasn't me!" insisted Sakurako, beside a still cruiser.

"I never said that!" Heiji shot back. "Just- stay back!"

Great. An enemy that could start fires wherever it wanted. Whoop. Heiji glanced back at the rooftops. "C'mon, Kamen Rider," he grunted. "What's going on?"

He didn't have long to wait. Kamen Rider arrived with remarkable punctuality, almost as if he'd read his mind - and then Heiji saw him crash into the ground. "Oy! Kamen Rider, you okay?"

"Get- Get back," Subaru coughed, struggling to his feet. "More... coming!"

"More?"

There was a roar like a motor revving up, and then something massive landed on a cruiser in the rear. Heiji spun around to find another Jammer rising from the wreckage, this one balanced atop what looked like a MoeRoader virus. No, it wasn't riding it - they were joined. "Oy, what's going on, now?"

There was another rumble as something crashed to the street, and then a third noise. Two more Jamming had descended, each likewise balanced on a MoeRoader - though Heiji could see their other armaments in the lamplight. Their bodies were patterned with the yellow material of the Mettorio viruses, and MeraMander bodies wrapped around their right arms, warped and fused to them. Welded to their backs were massive launchers - CannoBases.

"Yippee," muttered Heiji. "You certainly know how to make friends, huh, Kamen Rider?"

Subaru chuckled, loading two Recovery cards to make up for getting blasted earlier - he'd spent his Wide Sword discovering the Mett armor. "Somebody really wants the Raider's attention."

The J-Fusions rumbled to life ("Jammer" certainly was no longer adequate), circling around RockMan and Heiji, who had been close to where he'd fallen. "So, is it just me, or do these things have virus armaments?"

"Yep," RockMan reported. "Mets, Bases, Roaders - all the local ones."

"And you used a Ground Wave earlier, didn't you?"

"Yep. Why do you ask?"

"Huh? Oh, just curious." Heiji suddenly thought of the radios and the messed up electronics of the cruisers - so, if the Jamming weirdness affected a local area...

"Look, these guys are after me," Subaru pointed out, drawing his thoughts. "So, I'll make a break for it, and then you and your men get out of here."

Heiji grunted as though in assent - no point in telling the kid that the cruisers were out of commission. On the other hand, Heiji believed he'd discovered something quite a bit better than shock rubber.

"You ready?" Subaru asked.

"Sure," said Heiji, only to find he wasn't the one being addressed.

"Always," said War Rock - Heiji almost fell over in shock.

"Good. Heat Ball!"

Subaru summoned the softball-sized orange and brown sphere, promptly pitching it up as hard as he could. It flew two, three stories into the air. "Ground Wave!"

Subaru sprang forward, slapping his hand against a stunned Jammer's chest and blasting it away. "Go! Go!"

Heiji shook his head violently - everyone'd been preoccupied with watching the Heat Ball. The Jamming surged past him to get at the kid, allowing him to jog back over to his squadron. "Sakurako! Get over here!"

"Inspector! Are you okay?"

"Stop quibbling, you moron! Oy, you two, over here! How's everyone doing?" he asked, dropping his voice to a whisper.

"We're good, though nobody wants to go near the other cruisers."

"Not a problem. So," he said, grinning in the firelight. "Who's up for a Wave Battle?"

Sakurako face-faulted. "I-Inspector? Did you just-"

"I know damn well what I said," Heiji chuckled. "Wave Battle was designed specifically to fight against Denpa Viruses, and, well, just _look_ at those things. They're freaking virus walkers! Not to mention that this little baby," he paused, slipping out his Wave Scanner - Model 000, the prototype terminal he'd been given specifically by the head of AMAKEN, "has been going absolutely berserk all night. I'm just willing to bet that we can pull something off. It sure as hell works for Kamen Rider, at any rate.

"Now then, get the guys together - we're gonna do a little huddle."

Subaru fell to the ground, springing aside as a stream of Jamming Burner flames stripped through the air and seethed along the asphault. He leapt up, bounced off of another Jammer's chest and flew into the air. He snagged the Heat Ball as it was falling back down to Earth and pitched it hard against the gathered Jamming. There was a satisfying grunt in the explosion.

Subaru landed easily on his feet, dropping into a ready stance and loading a Long Sword. Okay, so the armor was located along their necks and chests, so maybe a strike at their joints?

The billowing smoke obscured his vision, though he was certain they hadn't escaped, since anything their size, no matter how fast, would have to have left- the smoke burst open and the Jamming rocketed away, leaving Subaru to curse at the situation.

With no other recourse, he lunged after the closest Jammer, sliding under its Burner flames. "Long Sword!"

Subaru sliced cleanly through the Roader, his diagonal strike severing the Jamming from both its base and its MeraMander-fused arm. Without skipping a beat, he curled into a ball and rose easily to his feet, turning around just in time for the air to explode around him.

"Jamming Bomb!"

Subaru gasped in pain, smashing through the window of the cafe and crumpling to the floor. "Okay, that hurt," he moaned, very, very grateful he'd spent time raising enough money to bolster his Transer's memory, not in part because doing so translated directly into increased stamina for RockMan.

"RockMan, dodge!"

"Jamming Bomb!" This time, two voices were crackling at him.

With a cry and a wild leap, Subaru lunged back through the broken glass just as massive black orbs hurtled past him - he was luckily across the street when they went off.

KABOOM.

The sheer force of the explosion blasted the remaining walls outwards, ripping them from their foundations in massive chunks. With a mighty crash, the rest of the building came tumbling down, leaving a massive pile of rubble.

The viral Jamming remained steady, not so much as bothered by the brick and mortar shrapnel. They turned as one to Subaru, who found his hackles rising in anticipation.

"Oy, Kamen Rider - Hit the deck!"

Subaru did as told, dropping to the floor - he glanced over to find Goyouda Heiji posing atop one of the few remaining vehicles, fierce and ready against the firelight, his wounded arm in a sling and covered by his billowing trench coat - he was a stubborn man, heat be damned. "ALL UNITS, OPEN FIRE!"

"Wave Battle, Ride On!" chorused the squad as one.

Subaru sucked in a stunned breath. "The hell-?"

"Gatling, Level 3!"

"Green Ink!"

"Power Bomb, Level 2!"

"Ice Meteor, Level 2!"

"Tail Burner!" Heiji roared, aiming his good hand at the gathered Jamming, clutching his Wave Scanner firmly.

Subaru's mouth slid open as he saw the ghostly, transparent shapes of the weapons materialize around the squad's Transer's and the inspector's strange new terminal. Others cast their hands upwards, summoning the doom of titans from the sky.

Heiji's jet, the closest, fired on the nearest Jamming, the sudden force blasting it into its comrades, just to be caught in frozen waves of ice descending from above. And then the Power Bomb struck, shattering the ice with its impact and allowing the rest of the attacks to shred into them.

Subaru shielded his eyes, peeking out after the light died down.

He couldn't believe it.

* * *

"Well, I'll be damned," whistled the barkeep quietly after a moment, looking at the pile of limp, harmless bodies in the middle of the street from where he was leaning - against the nextdoor building he'd smashed his tank gun into only a few minutes ago. "What exactly happened, there?"

"Hmm?" Dr. Hikari looked up from brushing rubble off of his coat. "Oh, that would be the Green Ink - the capsule does basic impact damage and breaks open, spreading said ink on the ground. Wherever it touches, grass sprouts, digging new roots into just about anything." He checked his pockets for any extra debris. "'Course, there's absolutely no nutrient material in the ground, here, so it's all likely going to die, soon enough."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about. Not really, anyway."

"Well," the doctor began slowly, "I would imagine that the Jamming are the cause of their own doom. Viruses are less powerful than most of the creatures like War Rock and Taurus, so instead of having enough power to alter their wave-particle states, Jamming're stuck in between - a limbo state of sorts - they have to alter the area they want to move around in, projecting the missing elements to extend the realm of their 'limbo' or something along those lines."

"With, what, those antennas?" said the barkeep, clearly struggling to keep up.

"Yes, and now that I think about it, I believe they actually _leave_ their limbo state. Snapping the antenna reduces one to its viral state, it doesn't cause it to get sucked back into limbo, which would suggest the Jamming can't sustain itself in the real world. It's probably an automatic process, since their unions aren't properly self-contained, like RockMan and Taurus Fire, so they essentially _leak_ concentrated Jamming_-Denpa_ into the surrounding area, possibly radiating it for miles, and the altered waves are what screw with communications equipment.

"However..." The barkeep rolled his eyes. The doctor was on a roll. "...that fountain of waves also alters the 'field state', let's call it, of the physical world as well, which allows for Jamming to act as material entities in the real world, or, well, the non-_dennou_ one. RockMan and Taurus Fire are self-sufficient, so they don't need to alter anything besides their own particle and wave properties to change planes, though I wouldn't be surprised if they amplified the effect Jamming's effect, something like a prism."

"You're going supernerd on me again," groaned the barkeep. "Just spit it out."

The doctor rolled his eyes so hard the barkeep wondered if they would get plummet back into his skull. "Fine. The Jamming have to spread their weirdass magical voodoo shit to let them show up and smash crap. Unfortunately, since they have to spread that same weird shit into an entire _place_, it makes crap like Battle Cards useable, too, if they're around, and shit. There, happy?"

"See, was that so hard? You didn't have to add that last 'shit', though."

"Yes, I did," sighed the doctor, looking back out at the street. "I wanted you to understand."

There was a pause, and then, "Hey, wait a sec-"

The doctor wasn't listening. He was thinking again, which meant it was time for the barkeep to tune him out. "Though it seems that others can only tap into it in a limited amount, so I'd have to wonder if it diminishes with distance into simple radio interference, or if multiple people call on it at once, it gets split between them. It certainly seems to be an amplified effect when more of them are around..."

"So the street is still screwed, huh?" interrupted the barkeep, sounding not a little like a man struggling to keep the conversation on an accessible level.

"That's about the size of it. Don't laugh, they'll probably fine the officer when they figure out who did it."

The barkeep laughed anyway, though he kept his voice down to avoid attention. The detective had almost caught him when he'd busted down that wall. He wasn't used to waging battles in cramped, crowded places like the city. Give him a cave or a pit, any day. The bigger, the darker, the better.

"Hey, didn't you mention hostages?" the barkeep asked, glancing over back at the street. "I don't see any-"

"Look up." The doctor's voice was suddenly curt.

"Ah. Gotcha. Is that who I think it is?" The doctor made a noise, but remained silent, which was out of character enough for the barkeep to look back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Figured. Didn't expect he'd show up, huh?"

"Didn't know he was involved," corrected the doctor.

"You sound like you're not as surprised as you should be."

"You get in this business long enough, 'expect the unexpected' becomes a motto."

"Fine," sniffed the barkeep, looking back at the street. "Be that way.

"So, are we going to try and rescue the kids?" he asked without pausing.

"We're not supposed to."

"Oh, please, you've had plenty of help when you were in trouble."

"Yeah, and you'll remember I kept getting into more trouble."

"Oh, please. So, tell me, _why_ exactly, aren't we saving the kids? Do you not want to be noticed?"

"That's about the size of it."

"But I figured you didn't care whether they noticed or not, since I'm pretty sure they're watching the neighborhood quite closely. (I'm blaming this all on you when they chew us out, by the way, just a heads-up). What, are we suddenly supposed to be mindful of him up there... oh, nevermind."

"Took you long enough," muttered the doctor. "He's enough of a loose cannon, as it is. No need to set him off."

"How are you so sure he hasn't already noticed you?"

"Because we've been sitting here and prattling for far too long for him to have noticed us and not attacked. He's got too much manipulation in him to leave things to chance."

"Wow. You and the kid have some serious issues with each other, huh?"

"Yeah, well, he keeps trying to kill me."

"_Everyone_ keeps trying to kill you. Hell, **I** keep trying to kill you. Your threshold for mortal wounds is beyond comprehension."

The doctor chuckled. "Yeah, well, I've got too many important things in motion to let him screw any of them up, so I'm lying low. Here's hoping he hasn't noticed Rajione, yet."

"Raji-what?" the bartender glanced curiously at the doctor.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out," chuckled the doctor.

"Oh, come on," grumped the barkeep. "Don't I even get a clue this time?"

"Okay, okay - how good are you at astronomy and history?"

"That's not a clue!"

The doctor shushed him, pointing out to the street, where from the sounds of it, Lieutenenat Sakurako was having a grand old time. Dr. Hikari sighed - that good time was about to end very, very soon.

* * *

Author's notes:

So, I hate me. And you hate me. And Taurus hates me.

Quick, general apologies for this taking so long. Not like I owe you anything, but it's not cool to keep people hanging.

Taurus is proving too hard to simply finish up for what I want to do with this; you'll notice this chapter is longer than the others. I swear, someday I'm going to plan this all out and rewrite it so it's not so clunky. Or maybe I'll keep this around as a first draft and write a whole new version.

I'd write more, but you're all probably read out and I have to go anyway. I'll have more satisfying notes in the next chapter.

Until then,

Ride On!


End file.
